


Overseas Survival

by Rills



Series: One Piece | Overseas Survival Stuff [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Universe, Friendship, Gamer fic, Gen, Humor, Isekai, Original Akuma no Mi | Devil Fruit, Work In Progress, non-technical gamer fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:55:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28064313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rills/pseuds/Rills
Summary: The Game-Game Fruit isn't known for... well, working, but maybe this girl pulled from another world will know how to play? Shinju's gonna have to adapt quickly if she wants to live. "Balls. I'm gonna die, aren't I?"Well, if she can survive this crew first... And the sea kings, and the Marines, and the criminal organisations, and the other pirates, and - an unusually high amount of temporary dismemberment?"...Can I turn down the difficulty of this game, please? No? Okay, the [Menu] still doesn't speak back to me... Just checking."-Not OP MC.-Shinju is from our world without One Piece, so no future knowledge.-A game fic but not based on Webtoon "The Gamer".-A non-technical gamer fic: no levels, missions or stat points.
Relationships: Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates & Original Female Character(s), No Romantic Relationship(s), Smoker (One Piece) & Original Female Character(s), Tashigi (One Piece) & Original Female Character(s)
Series: One Piece | Overseas Survival Stuff [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141391
Comments: 16
Kudos: 76





	1. A Drop in the Ocean

* * *

##  **|01| A Drop in the Ocean**

A dead zone, a deafening silence, and even darker waters of fathomless depths. A small fruit bobbed up and down on the water’s surface like a small buoy; it’s strange colours, swirling patterns and odd cube shape easily identifying it as a Devil Fruit. Trapped in still waters, it seemed as if it would float there for eternity until a stay sea-king took interest or a ship sailed by this isolated stretch of ocean.

Then, in an instance of the Grand Line’s unpredictability, a whirlpool formed beneath the fruit. Tearing it from the surface in a spiral of churning waves, it was violently dragged down into the ocean.

Just a moment later, the seas had already calmed… and the Grand Line was missing a Devil Fruit.

•❖❖❖•

Shinju wheezed painfully as her body hit the ground. Air that was too fresh and too unfamiliar burned the inside of her nose sharply, the scent of the ocean on the wind leaving her confused. Disorientated and feeling sick, Shinju took a moment to try to just _breath_ as she pushed herself onto her knees to look around.

The forest was silent, only the slight ruffling of foliage from gentle seaside winds accompanying her. Shinju stumbled to her feet while brushing black strands of her fringe from her eyes. Shinju looked down at her hands and blinked at them dumbly. She was whole again.

‘Okay, nice to know that I’m not dissolving into little pixels anymore.’ Shinju felt a small tremor run through her body at the horrifying memory as she recalled watching her body break down into little cobalt squares and agony ripping through her with every little piece that flaked from her skin. ‘Have I been drugged? There’s no way that was real.’ Shinju took wary glances around her.

Shinju had found something on the beach before she had been swept away to this place.

A royal blue cube with shimmering cyan swirls shaped like splashing water had covered its sides with a navy-blue stem on top had been what she’d found. She didn’t know what it was, but it was a beacon on the grey beach and dimming skies turning the water black.

Shinju had let her curiosity get the better of her.

She’d taken a tiny bite.

A tiny bite that was enough for her to choke on the taste of decay and rot and accidentally ingest the small piece. She had found herself breaking down to nothing within seconds before being taken to wherever this was during her unconsciousness. It hadn’t felt like she’d been unconscious, but there was no way that she had been taken from one beach at sunset to another breaking daylight in a single instance.

“This isn’t a dream…” Shinju muttered as she pressed her numb nail into a finger and started to wander the forest.

The trees were vivid greens when it was meant to be Autumn, there was something so subtly off about the sky, and there was only an eerie silence that lacked the city ambience – car honks, sirens, an occasional scream of children, and just the general sound of civilization.

As an occasional lucid dreamer, Shinju was perfectly aware of how her dreams felt. _This_ was too _clear_ , to _crisp_ , too _stagnant_ to be one of her constantly shifting dreams filled with blurry edges and uncompleted scenes.

This was real… and that was balls because she had her finals next week.

She was stuck on an isolated island in the middle of nowhere. She’d realised after she’d circled the entire perimeter over the past hour. She couldn’t see a spec on the horizon. It seemed like an endless ocean, but maybe she had spotted a large whale or two breaching in the distance.

Suddenly, closer to shore than before, something breached the surface, gallons of water cascading down its giant body. It was a huge serpent with the thickness of four busses strapped together with a fur mane. Then an impossibly larger bird proceeded to fly by and plucked it from the water.

Shinju tripped over herself as she frantically scrambled back in a delayed effort to flee.

Yeah, this was quite far from home. Shinju decided to put more distance between herself and the beach to hide in the forest from any other gigantic birds or sea monsters.

Shinju held in a stressed sigh and ran a hand through her hair. “I know I wanted a break from school, but this is a little bitty bit excessive.” Her next breath sounded more like a wheeze.

‘I can become hysterical later – or maybe whatever drugs I’m on will wear off. Looks like I’m heading over there for now to investigate,’ Shinju decided, turning to centre of the island that was raised upon a hill and shrouded in trees. Still, from this angle, she could just see glimpses of something like stone, too smooth and flat to be anything but a building.

Walking up the small path to the centre, Shinju checked what she had on her while stepping past a pile of bones, a skull eerily looking like a human child’s, but it could have been something else. Her phone, schoolbooks, stationary, and calculator were all in her bag, and she assumed that she had dropped it when she started dissolving. When she got back, she’d have hell to pay if she couldn’t find her textbooks and CAS Calculator. For now, Shinju focused her attention on the tiny fort shaped, a half stone cabin that stood in front of her at the top of the low hill.

Surrounded by weeds and shrubbery, the old building stood strong with a ground level of stone and upper level with windows on all sides of the square-based structure. Its edge’s lengths couldn’t have been more than 5-6 metres, and vines crawled over the entire building. With the weed-covered pathways and some vines growing over the door handle, Shinju concluded that it hadn’t been occupied in a while.

Despite this, Shinju called out an experimental ‘Hello’ anyway, on the off chance she was greeted with a response. Deafening silence answered.

“A mini fort.” Shinju hummed to herself with a smile pulling at her lips and jogged up the rest of the faded dirt path to take a closer look.

Circling the little fort and also looking around the surrounding area, Shinju found a few clusters of random fruit trees hanging with unfamiliar, unripe harvests; and haphazardly slashed down oaks around the back with moss, smaller plants having overtaken their stumps and rotten logs. Shinju may have tripped over once while wandering around… Maybe twice. Looking through all the windows of the first level and finding a dusty room filled with simple furniture, Shinju decided to explore the inside. Bringing a hand to the doorknob, a sudden, crisp bell chime rung from her hip. Glancing down, Shinju found three bells attached to her jacket.

‘How did I not hear these before?’ Shinju’s eyes widened in surprise, and when she looked back up, she fell back on her rear painfully with a surprised shout at the slightly transparent blue screen hovering right in front of her face.

“W-Wow!”

**[Nouvelle mission!]**

**[Lorsque vous êtes prêt à partir, récitez [Éjecter]]**

**[Nouvelle compétence! | Inspection]** **  
Permet à l'utilisateur de voir le nom et les détails de base des cibles.  
La fourchette est proportionnelle à la maîtrise des compétences.**

“What the hell!” she gawked at the floating screens, walking, and spinning around it trying to look at it from another angle, but the long, rectangular screen just stayed at the perfect viewing distance, just short of an arm’s length from her face. Reaching out, she touched the screen and the thing disappeared with a short and low ‘bleep’ noise.

Shinju ran a hand over the strange bells attached to her jacket, but no sound came from them. She looked back towards the small fort and saw another set of floating words.

**[Accueil Fort | Créé par le chevalier d'ambre]**

“Excellent. I’m not dreaming or kidnapped, I’m in a coma or dead.” Shinju pulled at her mid-neck length, black hair. Shinju turned to her right and saw a larger screen full of words that she couldn’t read. “Damn, it’s like a VR game and someone made the default setting French…”

Playing around in the menu, Shinju eventually found something labelled [Paramètres] and thanked her luck that lots of English words were of French origin. Going into the settings, Shinju eventually found [Langue] which must have been ‘Language’ and tried to find English. Shinju may have been half Japanese, but she had grown up reading and writing English due to her mother being a Japanese teacher and constantly moving them between different English-speaking countries for work. Her mother had never found the time to teach _her_ though.

Shinju wasn’t prepared for the list of near thousands of languages to pop up into a huge scrollable list that seemed endless.

Some looked similar, _most_ looked absolutely alien and couldn’t have been real written languages. Not with symbols like those. Thankfully, there was a search bar, and the keyboard settings were still in French, so it had all the correct characters to search for English.

 **User No. 44 | Class Affinity Undefined** **  
Name: Mochizuki Shinju  
Skills:  
[Inspection]  
[Inventory]  
Passives:  
[Biological Difference]  
[Game-Game Fruit]  
[Non-Locational Damage]  
[Unnatural Existence]**

“What the… this looks just like a game,” Shinju looked at the simple screen. There were no levels or stats. Just her name and a list of skills and passive abilities. If she concentrated a bit, she felt a weird sensation of feeling – or was it seeing? – a percentage bar for her health, hunger, and hydration.

Looking back towards the fort, Shinju just _knew_ how to activate [Inspection] like it had been whispered into her ear. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was doing, but the simplest way that she could explain it was that she was manipulating her will into a certain shape, pointing it at something, and that activated the skill – or even more simply, she was directing her intent.

**[Fort Home | Created by The Amber Knight]**

Too caught up in wondering if she could expand her passives to see what they were and wanting to know who The Amber Knight was, Shinju let out a small scream when a seagull suddenly landed near her with a sudden clacking of talons. “Ah!”

‘I need to stop getting surprised so many times today!’ Shinju internally whined.

The bird seemed to laugh at her with short squawks, and Shinju froze at the sight of such a distinctively _mirthful_ look on its face. The gull wore a cute, white hat with a blue and black striped ribbon around it with an ‘N’ mounted on the centre. In a sling under one wing was a bundle of newspapers, and around its bag was a small red bag that had ‘Newspaper’ printed on the front in black. It jumped down closer to her and gave a friendly coo, raising its arm to gesture to the papers.

**[News Coo Seagull | Pololo]**

“You’re so cute!” Shinju crouched down and admired the seagull in all its little News Coo gear. He seemed to puff out its chest a bit, enjoying the attention. Shinju didn’t know where she was and getting one of those papers would be extremely useful… while currently ignoring the fact that this could possibly all be some sort of drugged up hallucination. Well, at least she could confirm a living civilization was near here.

**[World Economy News Paper | ฿500 ]**

Pololo, who isn’t aware Shinju knows the price – and isn’t aware that she knows his name either – pulled out a little slip of paper and pointed to the ฿500 one, looking a little sheepish. A little note is printed out next to each price tier, showing that it’s decided by the level of isolation the island is and the danger level of the area.

“Ah, so that’s considered expensive for a paper in this currency…” Shinju frowned lightly as she muttered to herself. “I’ll buy one please, but could you give me just a second?” Shinju gave the bird an equally sheepish look, and it eagerly nodded its head, happy that she wasn’t upset about the price.

Shinju pulled up her menu with a little gesture from her fingers which helped her concentrate her will and noticed that the News Coo was looking at it curiously but wasn’t looking at her like she was an alien. Shinju wasn't sure if it was because it was a bird that it wasn’t shocked, or was it because this was normal. But if everyone had it, then he wouldn’t be looking at it so curiously.

‘Then maybe there are equally as weird things around here? Maybe I shouldn’t use this in front of others from now on…’ Shinju thought while she checked how to exactly use her [Inventory]. Sure, she knew kinda how to do it, but it was vague.

 **[Inventory]** **  
Requirement: container  
Containers are linked.  
Cannot store living animals.  
The size is proportional to skill mastery.**

‘Wait, _any_ container?’ Shinju’s eyes widened. She shoved her hand into her pants back pocket and used [Inventory], successfully pulling out a ฿500 coin, spinning it around between her fingers. It seemed that the money on her had been converted into this place’s currency; her 50 dollars turned into 5000 beli. Shinju mentally prodded around inside. It felt like it was the size of maybe a small backpack at the moment… ‘I wonder if there’s an [Inventory Menu] for when I have more stuff in here.’

The exchange was quick; the next moment Shinju was ฿500 short, and the News Coo was gone.

Looking through the paper, Shinju noticed that whenever she flicked to a new page, the words would warp slightly, translating from what looked to be Japanese into English.

‘Let’s figure out where the hell I am then.’

•❖❖❖•

“I’m in another fucking world full of crazy shit and I’m going to die,” Shinju moaned pitifully, her body slumped over itself as she held her head in her hands, seated on a tree stump.

Shinju didn’t even care that she had let a couple of curses slip just then. She was in another _world_ and stuck on a tiny little island with nothing but unripe fruit and a dusty fort-house-thing. She’d searched it and found empty shelves that might have been filled with books before, but someone had taken most of them but a few smaller things that were hidden in random places in the fort. All it had told her about was some vague stuff. East Blue, West Blue, South Blue, North Blue, the Red Line, the Grand Line, the Calm Belt, islands mapped out in the Blues, and hardly anything outlined in the Grand Line’s waters was on the small world map.

Half of the news in the paper from the News Coo had been pages of pirates and their insane bounties! Shinju had landed in a foreign world right in the middle of an era where pirates were running rampant, and there was always a chance one would sail by her little island.

“How the hell am I gonna get back?” Shinju groaned. It’s not like there was an exit button in the menu. Taking in a deep breath, Shinju slapped her cheeks. “Let’s just check my skills for now!” she forced a large grin onto her face, and it helped. This – if she ignored the terror and urge to break down in hysterics – was pretty cool.

Already knowing that [Inventory] was a storage space linked between all of her containers and that [Inspection] allowed her to see the basic details of objects around her, Shinju went to her [Passives] instead. The one she was most interested in was [Game-Game Fruit]. One of the books she had found vaguely mentioned mysterious fruits that gave people insane abilities while taking away their ability to swim. The only other information she had gotten was that eating more than one killed you, and there was only one around of each fruit at a time.

'But how had it ended up on a beach back home?' she hoped she would find out now.

 **[Game-Game Fruit]** **  
Type: Paramecia  
Gives the User the abilities of the Game-Game Fruit.  
Upon ingestion, the User is teleported to Starter Island.  
The User becomes unable to swim, use abilities, and is weaker in seawater.  
Affinity for obtaining skills and passives varies between Users.**

“This explanation of my Devil Fruit… is crap! Why is it so vague!” Shinju slapped the screen, her hand smacking it away before it came back with a pull of her will. She was still getting used to the feeling of using it. “So, I got [Inspection] just from investigating this area, and I got [Inventory] because I have pockets – as well as apparently having an affinity towards those skills. Who knows if I’ll even be able to get anything to defend myself?” She thought back to the clear scene of the breaching sea monster and gargantuan bird taking off with it. Yeah. Let’s hope that she can get some combat skills if not a way home.

Shinju checked her menu again.

**[User No. 44 | Class Affinity Undefined]**

“I guess I’ll just have to figure out what kind of stuff I have an affinity for as time goes on, but so far it doesn’t look like it’s talking about element affinities or anything,” Shinju murmured to herself.

‘This is all assuming that I somehow find a way off of this island and don’t starve to death. Ha. Ha. Ha.’ Shinju dragged a hand down her face. 'Now, back to speaking aloud to myself like a crazy person.'

Shinju re-read the description. “Wait a sec, ‘Upon ingestion, the User is teleported to Starter Island’?! So that’s how I got here!” Shinju smacked a fist down into her palm. “Starter Island must be this place, and since this is the Game-Game Fruit, this island is for some reason what it considers the start of the ‘Game’ which is triggered by eating the fruit. Maybe. I could be totally wrong about that. Anyway – next passive!”

 **[Non-Locational Damage]** **  
Negates locational damage.  
Lower health results in slower body mass regrowth.**

“Mm, yes, excellent, I feel enlightened,” Shinju spoke in a mockingly serious tone. “Let’s hope I never have to test out ‘body mass regrowth’ to find out exactly what that means.”

 **[Biological Difference]** **  
Human anatomy differs in this world from your one.  
Your body has undergone some small changes.**

“It would be useful to know… what exactly has happened to me,” Shinju looked down at herself with a deadpan face. “No wonder I feel uncomfortable in my skin.”

Suddenly curious, Shinju tried using [Inspection] on the island itself.

 **[Scatter Island | Fortified by The Amber Knight | The Safe Haven]** **  
Previous name: Starter Island  
When the User is ready to leave, recite [Eject].  
\- - - - -  
Fortifications:  
Harming the current User on the island will eject the attacker.  
Harming the current User on the island will trigger the island to move.  
Invading the fort will eject the invader.  
Marines cannot enter the island.  
The island will periodically move every few days to weeks.**

“So this Amber Knight guy changed the name then,” Shinju frowned. “Looking at everything this guy has done and him being a knight, maybe ‘knight’ refers to something like a game class since he protects things? It’s almost like tower/base defence… But why did he fortify the place?” Shinju considered that for a moment and imagined one of those giant birds swooping down and eating her stupid face. “Thank you for your thoughtfulness,” Shinju clapped her hands together and sent the past holder of the Game-Game Fruit a thank you... even though it would never reach him because he's _dead_ like Shinju might end up being if she didn't make the most out of what was left behind.

•❖❖❖•

Shinju hadn’t been ready to leave just yet, deciding to read through whatever scraps of information were left in the fort – presumably supplied by The Amber Knight and taken by other Users since then.

During her wandering of the island, Shinju had fallen a few times… Maybe many times. Getting stick of her sore knees, Shinju had dug around the fort and eventually found a pair of some strange cobalt-blue, metal shin guards over navy boots. She’d kept her comfortable black pants tucked into them and her beige shirt underneath. Over the top of that, she exchanged her old, beaten jacket with a navy cloak rimmed with cobalt-blue with four squares on the front that matched her boots. The three small notification bells had automatically moved onto the collar of her cloak.

Overall, Shinju thought she looked weird as hell.

And these were the least outlandish or strange equipment that she could find in the fort.

 _'_ Is this just the fashion of this world or something?! And they’ve all got this same symbol on them – I wonder why?’ Shinju mused to herself as she put away the rest of the clothes. Everything was marked with a little square rotated 45 degrees and bisected twice to make 4 smaller squares. 'And the only almost normal clothing just had to be in this shade of blue. I hate this colour _.'_ Shinju's frown deepened as she looked down at the clothes. She sighed. There wasn't really anything she could do about it.

“Okay, it looks like there’s no reason for me to stay here another day. I can’t find a way back home from here, and I’ll starve if I don’t leave. [Eject]!”

•❖❖❖•

“Ack!” Shinju wasn’t able to right herself from the longish fall, slamming into her shoulder and dislocating it. It popped itself back into place a second later due to [Non-Locational Damage] – her health still slightly decreased, but physically she was put back together. “Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch…!”

**[Health: 97%]**

Shinju sat up once the pain had faded, and she blinked away her tears. Peering out of the alleyway, she saw plain buildings and streets full of people. Most looked civilian, but there were a few in a blue and white uniform with ‘Marine’ written on them. Though, Shinju didn’t have to wait long to start spotting a few unsavoury characters and groups moving amongst the throng of people, their heads inclining towards the ones in white and keeping out of the main streets.

**[Polestar Islands | Loguetown | The Town of the Beginning and the End]**

The first thing that Shinju did once she stepped into the streets was trip… and five other people down with her. Shinju was immediately apologizing and scrambling to help people pick up their things while she panicked. A few looked pissed, some simply left, and a couple of others laughed at her good-naturedly and told her that it was okay.

“I’m really sorry!” Shinju said again as she helped an older woman – the last person she had tripped who was still here – pick up her things.

“It’s alright, no one was hurt,” the woman smiled at her. “If anything, it was impressive how many people you tripped over!”

“Please don’t say that ma’am,” Shinju passed the woman her things.

“You watch where you’re going now,” the woman turned to leave and so did Shinju with a final farewell.

Turning on her heel, Shinju smacked face-first into a broad chest and inhaled a lungful of smoke clinging to the strong frame. Falling back and about to twist her body to minimise the pain, Shinju was surprised when a large hand shot out and steadied her.

“You’re the clumsiest person I’ve ever seen,” a gruff voice spoke from above her. Shinju looked up past a wide chest, to a strong jaw clamped over a smoking cigar and white-grey hair pushed back messily. He let her go once she was steady enough.

**[Marine – Captain | Smoker – The White Hunter]**

“Thank you!”

‘Looks like no one else can see the pop-up, but someone noticed my menu back in the streets… Wait, is ‘Smoker’ his name or is [Inspection] telling me about this guy’s life habits?’

“Wasn’t a complement kid,” he gave her an unimpressed look before sighing out a plume of smoke. “Don’t fall over again.”

‘What the hell man, I meant thanks for catching me.’ Shinju shot a deadpan expression at his retreating back.

After Shinju left, she contemplated those words. “I don’t look like a kid, I’m 16,” she muttered to herself as her eyes glanced around at the people walking the street. [Biological Difference] indeed. These people were _tall,_ and the women were _curvy as hell._ “…I stand corrected.”

•❖❖❖•

‘Okay, good news. This island is at the entrance to the Grand Line for East Blue.’ Shinju was eating a bowl of cheap, tasteless soup in the local tavern, hidden at a small table in a corner from the rowdier occupants. ‘Bad news, the Grand Line is the most dangerous place in this world, and I’ve got no way past the Red Line unless I join the Marines or hitchhike with a passing pirate crew... and I don’t think either of those things will go down well. Other Bad News is that I’m gonna miss my finals.’

**[Hunger: 85%]**

**[Thirst: 100%]**

Shinju had no idea where to start in finding a way home, but the Grand Line was her best bet. It had the highest concentration of Devil Fruit users, and maybe one of them might have some kind of teleportation fruit. Maybe she might find some mysterious island that could somehow help. Maybe she’d just die before she even left the island.

‘All I have is [Inventory], [Inspection], and my [Passives]. I have no way of knowing what other skills and passives I can get and how to get them! I’ve been trying random things all day, but nothing has worked so far.’ Shinju had spent the day testing out some weapons at the nearby weapons store, but nothing had worked – even with the help of the kind store owner who showed her a few things.

Shinju had bought a small dagger since that was the only thing her weak arms could hold, but she couldn’t trust in some basic handling of the tiny weapon to defend herself. The more flyers and passing rumours that Shinju heard, the more out of her depth she felt. She was just a normal person. A normal _civilian_ person. A normal civilian person _without any combat or self-defence training of any kind._

These past three days had been completely wasted, and there was only so many odd jobs that Shinju could do with her limited skill set – both in terms of her Game-Game Fruit and natural abilities.

Shinju covered her face with her hands and just slowly breathed for a few minutes. This was okay. She was doing surprisingly well, considering everything.

‘Now… if I can just get home before my _entire life_ is upended from being _missing_ for so long, that would be great~!’ Shinju’s nails lightly dug into the sides of her face.

“Maybe I’m being too hasty, it’s _only_ been three days,” Shinju told herself.

•❖❖❖•

The rain suddenly began to pour down on Shinju was she stepped out of another weapon store, this time one filled with more obscure weapons that she hadn’t seen before. She held in her curses of frustration, and instead smoothed on a mirthless grin. A week had passed since she had landed here. She’d done some more testing with no luck and had been taking a few odd jobs to keep herself afloat for the moment, staying in the dusty attic of a cheap inn since she couldn’t afford an actual room.

‘I’ll need an umbrella for more than just today since it’s rain season on the island right now,’ Shinju distracted herself, heading over to the vendor and purchasing a grey umbrella. Thanking the vendor, Shinju opened it up and stepped back into the rain, heading to the town centre where she had seen some job postings.

Rain struck the top of the umbrella in a familiar, annoying rhythm across the taut surface protecting her. Memories of walking home soaked in icy water, soaked shoes; and numbed, aching fingers came to mind.

 **[New Skill! | Rain Shield]** **  
Activate an invisible barrier to shield against rain.  
The radius is proportional to skill mastery.**

If Shinju had the hand strength, she would have snapped the umbrella handle in her white-knuckled grasp. The girl, distracted, didn’t notice the impatient figure of a woman rushing through the rain with her umbrella tilted low over her face. Their sudden collision sent both of them nearly falling over themselves, and Shinju banged her arm painfully against the post beside her.

“Stupid girl! Watch where you’re going!” the woman snapped at her. The polite smile froze on Shinju’s face and the apology died on her lips as the woman roughly pushed past her, causing her to stumble backwards again.

 **[New Skill! | Trip]** **  
Destabilise a moving target.  
The range is proportional to skill mastery.**

Shinju took in a deep breath.

Maybe the stress of this all was getting to Shinju more than she’d like to admit.

“[Trip].”

“Ah!” a high pitch screaming sounded not too far down the street, immediately followed by the wet splat of mud.

Shinju failed at keeping the satisfied smile from her face as she rounded the corner, giving the umbrella a lazily slow twirl with one hand as it was pelted by cold rain.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” Shinju uttered to herself, her tone exhausted while the left side of her mouth quirked up. “I finally found out what my class is – not that it helps.”

**[User No. 44 | The Cobalt Mage]**

•❖❖❖❖•

 **User No. 44 | The Cobalt Mage** **  
Name: Mochizuki Shinju  
Skills:  
[Inspection]  
[Inventory]  
[Rain Shield]  
[Trip]  
Passives:  
[Biological Difference]  
[Game-Game Fruit]  
[Non-Locational Damage]  
[Unnatural Existence]**

•❖❖❖❖•

**[New System Notification! | Author Note]**

Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I’ve been wanting to write a gamer style fic for a while, so I finally decided to do so with this story!

Feel free to comment, point out errors, question anything that doesn’t look right, or maybe even bookmark? (I am new to AO3 (╮°-°)╮So I am still learning how the AO3 peeps do.) this story, *wink wonk ☆⌒( - 3・)* it’s gonna be a long one! I hope you all have a nice day and enjoy the story!

(p.s. I used google translate for the French, please forgive the grammar if it's bad, French-speaking people! (╥_╥) )

(p.p.s. Also on Quotev [https://www.quotev.com/story/13296981/Overseas-Survival-One-Piece-AU-OC ](https://www.quotev.com/story/13296981/Overseas-Survival-One-Piece-AU-OC)at my account[ https://www.quotev.com/prawnfish](https://www.quotev.com/prawnfish))


	2. Seagulls and Crossbones

Shinju started the next day bumping into another person, the two of them falling to the ground.

‘I hate everything.’

“Sorry, are you alright?!” Shinju forced more worry into her voice than she was really feeling – being stressed as all hell did that to you – but was surprised when another voice chorused with hers.

“Ah, I’m alright,” Shinju answered, her voice sincere now that she saw she wasn’t going to have to deal with another asshole. “Here are your glasses.”

“Oh! T-Thank you!” the older woman stood up quickly and dusted herself off while Shinju did the same, minus the extra cleaning of a pair of dirtied glasses. The woman looked between them and the door the two of them were both trying to enter at the same time leading them to bump into each other. “Are you also interested in swords?”

Shinju blinked owlishly for a couple of seconds, not expecting a conversation to start after bumping into the woman. “Um, I guess.”

“I think swords are amazing!” she excitably spoke. “Sorry for not introducing myself yet. I’m Tashigi.”

“I’m Shinju, it’s nice to meet you,” Shinju smiled back. This woman seemed nice. She glanced down and noted the katana at Tashigi’s side. “So, you’re a swordsman?”

“Yes!” Tashigi quickly replied, her friendly smile growing a bit as her posture straightened. “This is my partner, Shigure.” She held up the sheathed sword with a blue handle, a four-petaled guard, white sheath with a bumpy green grip over part of it. “It’s one of the Meito.”

Shinju hadn’t talked to anyone in a while, so even if she wasn’t a sword fanatic, she welcomed the easily growing conversation. She missed having friends like the ones probably worrying about her back home. “Meito? Sounds cool! Could you tell me more?”

Tashigi’s eyes lit up at Shinju’s interest. “Of course!”

•❖❖❖•

Their conversation continued after Tashigi handed her sword to the store owner for polishing, and it carried on for a few hours, extending to other topics. The two were walking around Loguetown together with Tashigi leading the way.

“Your Captain smokes _all_ the time?” Shinju gaped at Tashigi. “And wears cigars all over himself?!” Shinju rapidly gestured all over her own body with her hands.

“That’s right!” Tashigi pushed her red-framed glasses up with a finger, a frown pulled across her face. “The smell at the base is terrible… but he’s still someone that I look up to. He’s a good person and Marine, despite his tough appearance and rough attitude.”

“Hmm…” Shinju thought hard for a moment. “I think I saw him last week when I first arrived. Yeah! That’s right! I slammed straight into him!” Shinju covered her face in embarrassment at the memory.

“I’m sure it’s fine, I bump into him all the time too,” Tashigi patted Shinju on the shoulder.

“That doesn’t make it any better! Hey, wait a second, if you’re a Master Chief Petty Officer, is it alright for you to be here talking with me for so long?” Shinju asked, a bit of worry in her tone. She didn’t want to be keeping her new friend from her duties, even though it didn’t seem like Tashigi was the kind of person to slack off.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m off duty for today,” Tashigi assured her. “It’s been nice to talk with someone so casually for once – and with another girl. Back at the Marine base, I’m one of the superior officers, so it’s hard to have a casual conversation. Captain Smoker isn’t one for chatting either.”

“That’s-” Shinju was cut off when both she and Tashigi went stumbling to the floor once again when someone ran between them.

“My glasses!” Tashigi cried out, groping around the ground looking for them. Shinju quickly located them and gently placed them into Tashigi’s hands. “Thanks, Shinju.”

“Tashigi, he snatched your coin pouch!” Shinju quickly pulled Tashigi to her feet and led her around the bend where she saw the pickpocket run into.

The air in the alley was slightly cooler and damp, the ground shifting slightly under Shinju’s shoe from the grime. Once Shinju’s eyes locked onto him, she muttered the command for [Trip], yet he only stumbled slightly. Tashigi handled the rest.

Tashigi shot forward and drew her sword in a single, graceful arc, hitting the thief across the back with the blunt side of the sword. It was so quick that Shinju had barely seen her move, and she would have been left in awe if Tashigi didn’t stumble forwards right afterwards.

A couple other Marines on patrol had seen their Master Chief Petty Officer bolting into an alley and had come to help. They congratulated Tashigi on the quick capture, and they left just as quickly as they came with the apprehended criminal, leaving Tashigi and Shinju to themselves again.

“That was awesome, Tashigi!” Shinju’s initial amazement was reduced a bit by the stumble, but she stumbled all the time herself, and it was still impressive.

“I was just doing my job,” Tashigi said with a sheepish smile, not used to people being impressed after seeing her trip all over herself. “That was the Gentle Sword Style.”

“Hahaha, just watching you almost makes me want to become a Marine,” Shinju offhandedly commented.

“You should then!” Tashigi immediately encouraged her. “We’re always looking for more good people like yourself to carry out justice!”

“Thanks, I guess,” Shinju chuckled. “I don’t think I can become a Marine though…”

“Why not?” Tashigi looked borderline sad at that, and it almost made Shinju feel bad.

Shinju turned away sheepishly. “I’m too weak for it, I guess.”

“If that’s the only thing, then you should join the Marines!” Tashigi smiled at her, immediately bouncing back.

“Huh?”

“It’s two months until new cadets will be tested at our base, so I can train you and teach you the way of the Gentle Sword Style until then! And don’t feel discouraged just because you’re a girl either, it just means you have to train even harder!”

“But I’ve got no affinity for the sword!” Shinju crossed her forearms in front of her to make an ‘X’ and frantically shook her head. “And I can’t take up your time like that!”

“What do you mean? You don’t know until you try, and you’ve never had a proper teacher.” Tashigi had her hands on both of Shinju’s shoulders as if to stop her from escaping. “And with the work Captain Smoker is doing, the number of pirates here is drastically decreasing in Loguetown. That’ll give me plenty of time to train you!”

Tashigi was dead serious and seemed determined to make her into a Marine. Shinju mused over the suggestion for a minute, Tashigi patiently waiting for her answer.

This was probably the only way she would get any combat training – something she desperately needed if she wanted to go to the Grand Line and actually survive. As her skills were now, they were more likely to piss off an enemy and earn her a more painful death than anything.

Even if being a ‘Mage’ meant that she probably couldn’t obtain sword skills, it might be useful to have fighting capabilities outside of her Devil Fruit ability – especially when they all seemed useless so far.

“I’m not really sure if I want to join yet…”

“Then you have until the test!” Tashigi unwaveringly encouraged her.

Shinju was going to try her best.

•❖❖❖•

Smoker looked out at the usually empty area of the Loguetown Marine base’s training grounds. Tashigi was trying to teach that random brat she met how to use a sword again. Apparently, Tashigi thought she’d make a good Marine. As usual, nothing was coming of it. She was even clumsier than Tashigi with an extra dash of hopelessness. He’d just been ignoring them for the past week, but by now he’d gotten sick of watching the pathetic display.

He stalked over and stood behind the two, casting a large shadow over the both of them.

“Tashigi, other-clumsy-brat,” Smoker grumbled out behind the cigar between his teeth.

“Captain Smoker!” the Master Chief Petty Officer immediately spun on her heel and stood to attention, almost stumbling but managing to recover. Meanwhile, Shinju tumbled over with her training sword into the dirt in surprise.

“Mr Smoker!” Shinju greeted awkwardly, not knowing if she should refer to him as Captain Smoker as well. Her arms were aching from the sword movements that Tashigi was drilling her through, and her lungs were still raspy from the stamina training that Tashigi considered ‘light’.

He’d never approached them before.

“Why do you want to become a Marine?” he abruptly asked Shinju – but with that scowl and his overall presence, it came out more like an order.

“I’m not sure if I want to become a Marine yet!” Shinju stood up straighter, a bit of fear knocking the unadulterated truth straight out of her. Maybe not the best thing to say to the Marine Captain of the base she was intruding on and stealing away the time of a subordinate.

Smoker loomed over her ominously. “What, you wanna be a pirate?”

“What?! No way in hell!” Shinju immediately answered with a bite to her voice that wasn’t directed at Smoker himself. “What I want to do is travel the Grand Line, but I’m not going to become some kind of _criminal_ to do it.”

Smoker kept going, satisfied by the answer. “Do you have any idea how dangerous the Grand Line is?”

“Not really!” Shinju answered honestly with confidence. Smoker and Tashigi were silent for a moment, thrown off by her weird confidence to admitting she didn’t know about something. “But I guess it’s really dangerous from the newspapers.”

“Dumbass, don’t sound so confident about not knowing things,” Smoker scowled. “Why the hell does a weak brat like you want to go there?”

Shinju was silent for a moment, frowning slightly and eyes narrowing. There was a small glint of tenacity in there. “…I need to find something.”

A moment of silent musing, panicking, and confusion passed between the three of them.

“You’re hopeless with a sword; use your time and effort to learn something else or train,” Smoker stated bluntly.

“But Captain! She’s only just started!” Tashigi’s face was awash with disappointment. She was going to lose her apprentice so soon?

Smoker let out a long puff of smoke into the air before he turned to look down at Shinju. “You’re not strong enough to wield a sword, and you’re too imbalanced. Do more training first.”

“Ah… okay,” Shinju could only agree while Tashigi shot a dismayed look at Smoker.

“I’m going to teach you how to beat the shit out of criminals instead,” Smoker stretched his arms out. “And dodge.” Smokers arms began to turn to smoke, menacingly rising up into the sky like billowing clouds of white from a freshly started fire.

“Huh?” Shinju was finding being bemused a bit too often of an occurrence lately.

“Seeing you so hopeless is pissing me off.”

•❖❖❖•

While Tashigi was lamenting that her student had been stolen from her, that wasn’t really the case since Smoker only popped in every now and then to ‘spar’ – read: thump the crap out of – with Shinju and teach her a couple new moves before handing her back over. It had been two weeks since then, and last week Smoker had started taking Shinju out on patrols with him to get her used to fighting.

Maybe he literally threw her at a group of pirates and told her to survive – but that was beside the point since she was learning… apparently.

Shinju much preferred her patrols with Tashigi – the woman wasn’t insane.

Shinju ducked under a knife slash towards her throat with a short screech as she rolled between the pirate’s legs, popping up behind him. With the jitte Smoker had tossed her in his brief realization that she probably needed a weapon, she smacked the pirate in the back of the head with the metal stick. Instead of knocking him out, he only stumbled and turned around to lash out with his leg in a heavy side kick to her stomach.

“You piece of shit!” he slurred at her.

“Less screaming and more beating,” Smoke ‘helpfully’ supplied from the sideline.

**[Health: 60%]**

All these hits were really knocking down her health, even if training had made her a bit sturdier. She suspected [Biological Difference] had done quite a bit too. She was improving a smidge to quickly to be normal.

‘That’s gonna take a few days to heal. At least Smoker threw me at a drunk one this time?’ Shinju thought as she flew back her body spinning as it bounced across the ground and into an alleyway.

The pirate stalked over to finish the job.

“[Trip]!” Shinju whispered as she shot back out of the alleyway, taking the pirate by surprise with her practically instant recovery. “Ha!” She struck him across the head again with the jitte as he stumbled – using it more like a bat – and managed to make him drop this time.

‘I’m starting to get better using [Trip], but I want to improve at using my Devil Fruit and maybe get a few more useful skills before I tell Tashigi and Smoker.’ Shinju felt her ears heat up. ‘Right now, it’s kind of embarrassing.’

“Hn, you actually knocked him out.”

Shinju’s head snapped to Smoker. “I could have died!”

•❖❖❖•

“Captain Smoker! Is this really necessary?!” Shinju let out a scream as she skidded around a corner, Smoker on his Billower Bike’s tires screeching as he made a sharp turn after her.

“You need to experience some danger if you want to up your training!” Smoker shouted.

“Aren’t you just bored since all the pirates have been weak lately?!” Shinju complained while she began to scramble up the side of a building, making a decent effort for someone that didn’t know much about climbing or parkour.

Smoker’s arm extended with his jitte in hand and slammed against the metal piping next to Shinju’s face, eliciting another scream from her. He wasn’t really aiming to hit her, but she didn’t need to know that.

“I’m telling Tashigi!”

“I’m her Captain, dumbass!”

“Take this!” Shinju threw down a loose brick she disappeared over the top of the building, completely missing.

“Idiot, learn to aim if you’re going to throw crap!” Smoker called up to her as he rounded to the other side of the building where he knew Shinju would be dropping down from.

“Okay! Maybe I need a bit of stress training!” Shinju admitted while still running for her life. “But wasn’t that why you were literally throwing me at pirates?!”

“We ran out of pirates, so this is the alternative, brat! You're using my training grounds so I’m training you my way! Do you want to be a good Marine or not?!”

“I haven’t even decided if I want to be a Marine yet!”

•❖❖❖•

“Tashigi, Smoker was trying to kill me again!” Shinju immediately hid behind the said woman while Smoker ‘parked’ his bike in front of the Marine base, skidding to a stop.

“Captain Smoker! What did you do to Shinju?!” Tashigi questioned him.

“Stamina and danger training,” Smoker nonchalantly answered while he took another drag from his cigar, even lighting another and adding it next to the second between his teeth.

“He was chasing me around town on his bike trying to run me over and hit me with his jitte!”

Tashigi shot her Captain and incredulous look while he simply shrugged.

While Smoker watched Tashigi dragged Shinju away for more training – and he was fairly sure she was preparing Shinju to wield a sword again with some of the exercises they were doing – he noted something he had been having fleeting suspicions of after each training session.

Shinju never got bruises or scrapes, and it wasn’t just her cloak hiding it since she usually took it off when she trained. He wasn’t imaging it either; he’d seen the dumbass slam on her face straight into the rough concrete wall, and there wasn’t even a tinge of red to her skin.

Smoker guessed that he had to give the brat credit for having a tough body.

•❖❖❖•

Tashigi had started training Shinju in the Gentle Sword Style again, and they were currently taking a break, plopped down side by side on the dusty grounds of the Loguetown Marine base training area. This dusty training ground that smelt of the sea and held the distance ambience of both the Marine base and town was starting to grow on her.

“You mentioned that you were stationed here only a few months ago; is there any special reason?” Shinju asked. “Ooh, or is it confidential?”

“Hahaha, nothing confidential,” the swordswoman grinned. “We’re currently stationed here to stop the new pirates coming into the Grand Line, as you already know. It’s pretty efficient since this is the only stop before the entrance from East Blue.”

“That must cut down a lot of costs for patrolling, searching, and sailing around looking for them,” Shinju noted, listing using her fingers.

“Right! But there’s also one other reason,” Tashigi added. Shinju turned back to her with a curious gaze. “Since a few days ago, we’ve also been given orders to watch Scatter Island since it appeared nearby.”

Shinju couldn’t help her eyes suddenly widening in surprise and covered it up by rubbing at one of them as if something had fallen into it. “Scatter Island?” she echoed the awfully familiar name. It had been almost two months since she had landed there.

“Yes! The cursed island that scatters with the wind,” Tashigi elaborated. “It moves very frequently, just appearing and disappearing at random locations without warning or trace.”

“Um, but why do you have to watch it?” Shinju prodded for more information after confirming that is was indeed the Starter Island.

Tashigi scowled, subconsciously gripping her sword more tightly. “Those that leave the island are all horrible thugs or pirates.”

Shinju stiffened and focused her gaze on the not so distant ocean.

Tashigi nudged her glasses up again. “That island is where The Scarlet King appeared, and later on, The Amber Knight, another notorious pirate. Pirates and criminals with strange Devil Fruit abilities have also been spotted on the island over the years. We suspect that it belongs to an underground gang of sorts, but the Marines haven’t been able to enter the island to investigate. Boats are never reported to be seen going to and leaving the island, but people spotted on the island will sometimes appear on nearby islands, like here.”

“W-Wait, so what are the Marines doing about it?!” Shinju was beginning to panic.

“Well, all I know is that they automatically get a bounty, but that’s about it,” Tashigi shrugged. “But don’t worry about it! It’s been five years since the last appearance.”

‘What?!’ Shinju resisted gaping at Tashigi. ‘The Marines just give a bounty to anyone seen on Scattered Island just because of some unconfirmed theory?! Just what the hell did The Scarlet King and The Amber Knight do?! What kind of insane skills did they have?!’ Shinju’s eyes widened a fraction. ‘Wait, do the Marines do not know they all went there because they’re users of the Game-Game Fruit? Did they not figure that out? Tashigi didn’t mention it so…’

“Oh, that’s pretty interesting,” Shinju listlessly commented.

‘Shit, if having an ‘unusual Devil Fruit’ is an identified trait of those from the Scattered Island maybe I shouldn’t let them know about it…’ Shinju bit her lip. ‘Other Devil Fruits usually only do one thing, right? Then mine will stand out, especially since the Scattered Island appeared around here. Well, if anyone does see it, I’ll have to give it another name just in case the Marines really do know about the Game-Game Fruit’s connection.’

“Are you feeling okay?” Tashigi asked, noting the blank look on her face. “Are you worried about the Marine test?”

“Um, yeah!” Shinju rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “My stamina is way better, and I guess I can kind of brawl now because of Smoker, but my sword skills are still only good enough for really weak enemies.”

‘Tashigi and Captain Smoker wouldn’t arrest me if they found out… right?’

“Don’t worry about it! You’ll be sure to pass and become a fine Marine!” Tashigi slapped her on the shoulder lightly. “Captain Smoker may call us the shame of the Marine headquarters with how clumsy we are, but he thinks you’ve done well too.”

“Yeah…”

Shinju sighed. ‘I’m gonna need more time to figure out what to do.’

Spending the rest of the day skipping stones into the calmed ocean with the chill of night surrounding her. Hearing the chime of bells, she glanced at the screen with tired eyes.

**[New Skill! | Stone Skipping]  
Requirement: a rock  
Distance and strength are proportional to skill mastery.**

“You’re really useless, aren’t you?”

•❖❖❖•

Shinju kept hitting the training dummy in front of her again and again until she was completely exhausted. Her scraped up knuckles healed instantly due to [Non-Locational Damage], but traces of her injuries were still there in the form of smudges of blood across the dummy. Shinju sluggishly spun on her heel and slumped against the dummy, siding to the dusty ground.

‘Ah, I should head back out again before anyone catches me training since Tashigi banned me for today.’ Shinju picked herself up and headed out before the Marines on their morning drills ran by.

Tashigi had gone to pick up her sword again since she had to send it back again last week, Smoker was on patrol, and Shinju was left aimlessly wandering the streets.

It was only a few more days until the testing day, and Shinju was trying to find a good way to tell Smoker and Tashigi that she had decided to not become a Marine. She couldn’t do it.

It was _so_ tempting to join them and then have Smoker pull a few strings so that she’d get to work with him and Tashigi. Tashigi was like a big sister that she never had, and Smoker was almost like some kind of cool, half-crazy uncle. That, and she’d basically become their unofficial apprentice. Most of the Marines at the base that she’d gotten to know to were surprised she wasn’t already officially one of them. Smoker apparently wasn’t one for following the rules and regulations.

But Shinju couldn’t spend every day lying to Tashigi and Smoker’s faces. Lying to them about where she was from was already starting to eat away at her. Going on an adventure from her isolated island hometown she hadn’t named yet? Yeah, real smooth. It’s still better than seeming like a crazy person claiming to be from another world.

Even if she did trust them, what about the other Marines? While at first the dangerous exploits and horrifyingly large bounties of pirates in the newspapers had caught her attention, if she really looked, there was something chillingly brutal about the way the Marines conducted themselves. There were a lot of small-time pirates that couldn’t have even been that dangerous listed as ‘a casualty of resisting arrest’ and lots of other things. The point was, the Marines showed no mercy to criminals – it was expected, really – and that meant that she could be cut down the moment someone else found out.

Innocent before guilty didn’t exist here, and Shinju had a strong enough sense of self-preservation.

Shinju passed by a delicious smell and checked her hunger level.

**[Hunger: 42%]**

These days she’d been very easily losing track of eating and drinking. She did the same back home, but then her stomach would grumble, or her mouth would feel parched. Now she didn’t _feel_ the sensation of being hungry or thirsty, and she’d even hit zero a few times. Luckily, it didn’t instantly kill her, just start to eat away at her health bar slowly until it was above zero again.

‘All I’ve been eating is tasteless soup to keep down on costs, but maybe not being able to taste anything yummy in two months has been affecting me,’ Shinju considered.

Buying a long paper bag of five grilled skewers that had attracted her attention, she broke away from the full streets. She sat down on a wooden bench and gave herself a moment to just enjoy the smell of the meat, the nice feeling of the smooth wood grain beneath her fingertips, and the now-familiar sea breeze.

‘I still have time,’ she reminded herself.

Shinju took pulled off a piece of meat from one of the skewers and sighed.

**[Hunter: 46%]**

‘Why’s everything here so tasteless?’ Shinju frowned lightly.

“Oi, why do you look so down when you’ve got meat?” an almost offended sounding voice popped Shinju’s bubble of thought.

Tilting her head up, she eyes the teenager in front of her. He looked about her age with a thin frame, black hair, a scar under his eye, and a kind of amiable nature about him.

Shinju couldn’t help but let out a laugh when she realised what he had asked her. “Pff, meat doesn’t equal happiness.”

“It sure can!” he grinned. “I always feel great when I eat meat!”

Feeling cheered up by his infectious grin; and having noted his eyeballing of her food and slight drooling, Shinju extended a couple skewers from the bag to him. “Want some?”

“Wow! Thanks!” the teenager immediately shoved the skewers into his mouth, dragging the bare sticks back out just as quickly. He made the paper tasting meat look as delicious as it smelt.

‘That was fast.’ Shinju could only blink at him in surprise. Not noticing the painter carrying precariously stacked tins behind the boy until he was nearly on top of the teen, Shinju’s reflexes moved her body for her, manoeuvring herself between them.

“[Rain Shield]!” Shinju snapped her right hand up, the other holding the paper bag. Bright yellow, blue, and red paints glittered brightly in the sun as it sloshed across the spherical curve of her protective barrier. Shinju stepped back, pulling the star-eyed teen with her before dropping the barrier. It was a good thing [Rain Shield] considered any falling liquid to be rain.

“Sorry about that, you two!” The painter continued to profusely apologise to them, ignoring Shinju’s ability. He’d probably seen Devil Fruits users passing through Loguetown before. Shinju told him it was alright, and the painter picked up what was left of his paints to continue to rush away to his destination.

Shinju turned back to the teenager. He looked ready to burst, his lips pressed tightly together, and his cheeks puffed out with barely held back words and excitement. Shinju blinked at him and he started speaking immediately.

“So cooool! Was that magic?!” he was leaning closer now, and it reminded Shinju of Tashigi when she was trying to convince her to become a Marine. “Are you a wizard?!”

“Um, kinda?” Shinju took a moment to think, trying her to come up with something that kind of worked. It’s not like she’d see this kid again after today. “I ate the Mage-Mage Fruit, and I became a mage.”

“That’s so cool!” he echoed his earlier words, somehow looking even more excited. “I ate the Gum-Gum Fruit and turned into a rubber-man!” He hooked a finger into his mouth and pulled his stretchy face impossibly far out before letting it go with a snap. “Can you do any other magic tricks?!”

‘Is this guy ten or something?’ Shinju questioned his intelligence, yet at the same time, it was kind of… likeable? She just couldn’t see herself really disliking the guy so far.

“Well, I can trip people over?” she offered.

“Awe, no laser beams?” He deflated, pouting. “That’s kind of lame.”

“Well, not at the moment, I’m still learning more… spells.” Shinju watched his eyes light up again.

“So, you’ll learn how to use laser beams in the future?!” He was leaning back in again with a huge grin.

Shinju smiled back. “Maybe.”

“Then you have to join my crew!” he abruptly declared.

“Say what?”

“I’m Monkey D. Luffy! And um gu’un e ring-o e -rates!” The second part of his sentence was unintelligible as he helped himself to the rest of Shinju’s skewers, talking with his mouth full. “Do you have a dream?”

“I’m Mochizuki Shinju, and not… really? I guess I want to travel the Grand Line, but it’s more of a means to an end.” Shinju wondered why he was asking but got an answer quickly.

“We’re going to the Grand Line too! You should join my crew and get a really awesome dream!” His grin stretch impossibly wide. “Zoro’s our swordsman, and he’s gonna be the best in the world! Usopp is our sniper, and he’s gonna be a brave warrior of the sea! Nami the best navigator ever, and she’s gonna draw a map of the world! Sanji’s our chef – he makes the best meat – and he’s gonna find the All Blue! You’re gonna be our wizard!” He suddenly glanced around himself. “Hey, do you know where the execution stand is?”

“…Just straight that way.” Shinju pointed left, and he immediately began to run off.

“Shishishi! Thanks!” Luffy shouted one more thing over his shoulder. “Meet us at our ship before we set sail, okaaaaay?!!!”

Shinju slowly waved goodbye, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. “That was an experience.”

Letting her curiosity guide her, Shinju decided to go and check out the docks. He hadn’t told her which one his ship was at, or what his ship looked like, so Shinju was trying to satiate her boredom more than anything now. She didn’t think she’d be joining a random crew run by a hyperactive teenager to venture into the Grand Line.

‘I could be training, but Tashigi doesn’t know about [Non-Locational Damage]. I physically can’t kill myself from training alone.’ Shinju took a right. ‘It’s good that I figured out how to slow down and turn off the effects while I’m awake, or else I’d never gain any muscle mass. Not that there’s much, but every little bit counts?’ Muscle fibre tears and healing time was required for development, of course.

Checking the South and then East harbours, she found nothing besides the usual Marine and merchant ships. Continuing her walk, the streets began to thin as the rain started to pour down, the temperature dropping while cold winds whipped at Shinju’s face. Taking a glance around, she prepared to pull her umbrella from her [Inventory] but was interrupted by a passing Marine.

“Oi, Shinju!” he called over the rain which was quickly growing in intensity. He kept running, and several other Marines followed him.

“Steven!” she called back and quickly merged with the group, running with them after she saw the hard set to his expression. Steven was one of the many Marines stationed at Lougetown’s base, and she’d talked to him a couple of times while looking for Smoker and Tashigi.

“The Straw Hat Pirates are escaping!” he started to explain. “We’re going to cut off any that might slip past Captain Smoker and Master Chief Tashigi at the harbour!”

“Alright!” Shinju nodded her head. She’d dealt with pirates before but was worried what kind might be able to make it past smoker’s Smoke-Smoke Fruit and Tashigi’s skill with the sword. That, and she’s always been supervised by either Smoker or Tashigi while fighting so she doesn’t get herself killed.

Shinju thought to herself, ‘Sure, I have some magic and can almost handle a sword – but I’m still a civilian, especially by this word’s standards.’ Shinju’s hands clenched. ‘I’m not even going to become a Marine, but I want to help Tashigi and Captain Smoker this one last time since I'll head off without them soon.’

“Where’s your sword?!” Steven was struggling to see through the rain, but he could clearly see a lack of sword and scabbard.

“I never carry one around!” Shinju shouted back. That a bit of a lie since it was inside [Inventory] – but she wasn't really _carrying_ it.

“Why the hell not?!”

“Tashigi only lets me use a real sword while she’s watching!”

“…Maybe you should go back?!”

“I have a knife!”

•❖❖❖•

When Luffy entered the harbour with Sanji and Zoro running by his side, he lit up in happiness at the sight of their new crewmate. Only, it was pretty weird to Luffy that she was standing with the group of Marines blocking their way.

‘Maybe he’s a pirate wizard and got captured!’ Luffy thought before he slammed into the Marines, knocking a few of them out while Sanji and Zoro swiftly took down the rest.

He threw Shinju over his shoulder since she was just staring at them with a shocked look on her face – when they were obviously in a rush – and greeted her. “Hey, Mochi! I’m glad you decided to join! Shishishi!”

"You're a pirate?!" Shinju twisted around in his arms and indeed saw the back of the same teenager from earlier today.

Nami’s shout could be heard over the rain. “Hurry up and get on board! We’re setting sail immediately!”

“Yes, Nami-swan~!” Sanji sang, leaping aboard with Zoro and Luffy following after.

However, on Luffy’s way up, Shinju fell from his back as she kicked her way off, trying to land back on the dock before she was successfully kidnapped.

“Careful, Mochi!” Luffy chided her as he stretched his hand to catch her by the leg while she fell mid-air. “What if you fell in the sea?” He was speaking as if she was the unreasonable one here.

“Let go of me rubber butt – Aaaah!”

As Luffy quickly reeled his arm back, Shinju was thrown up into the air with a screech that was swallowed by the sound of the storm. She slammed into the crow’s nest, smacking against its railing which she desperately held onto.

“Yahoo! The ship feels like it’ll flip right over!” Luffy’s voice only held delight.

•❖❖❖•

“Forgive us, sir! Because of that sudden gust, the buggy pirates have managed to esca-”

“I’m continuing my pursuit for Straw Hat. Take out our ship,” Smoker cut him off, striding past his shocked men. “I’ll go to the Grand Line as well.”

“What?!” They couldn’t believe that their captain was about to just abandon his post like this to chase after a pirate.

To the surprise of many in the room, Tashigi stepped forward. “I’m going too, sir! I can’t forgive that Roronoa Zoro! I swear I’ll bring him down with my own two hands!”

Before anything else could be said, another Marine burst into the room, one hand gripping his injured arm. “Captain Smoker! The Straw Hats...! They..!”

“Out with it,” Smoker fully turned to the beaten Marine.

“Straw Hat grabbed Shinju and dragged her aboard! They’ve kidnapped her!”

“WHAT?!!!”

•❖❖❖•

“So, we’ve reached the grand line, have we? Well, this calls for a celebration!” Sanji declared as he slapped down a barrel in the centre of the almost violently rocking deck. Hands in his pockets, Sanji brought up his leg and placed his foot down on the barrel. “To find all blue.”

“To become the pirate king!” Luffy slammed his sandaled food down next to it.

“To be the greatest swordsman…” Zoro smirked.

“To draw a map of the world!” Nami said with her own grin.

“T-To become a brave warrior of the seas!” Usopp finished.

“I have been kidnapped!” Shinju squeezed her armoured foot between Luffy and Zoro’s.

“Who’s this, Luffy?” Zoro finally asked, apparently the only one to notice his captain throw her aboard but hadn’t questioned it earlier since they were in a bit of a rush.

“That’s Mochi! He’s our new wizard, but he’s still deciding on his dream!” Luffy grinned, and his other crewmates sighed, expecting something like this to happen sooner or later. However, right now they were about to commemorate the start of their greatest adventure, so explanations could wait. “Off to the Grand Line we go!”

'That's obviously a girl...' Nami noted, but right now that wasn't important.

**[Straw Hat Pirate – Captain | Monkey D. Luffy – Straw Hat | ฿30,000,000]**

Shinju blanched, ‘I’m going to use [Inspection] on everyone I meet from now on!’

And with Luffy’s signal, everyone brought their legs up in unison – maybe Luffy wrapped his leg around Shinju’s own a couple times and pulled it along with his since she was busy protesting – and slammed their feet back down, crushing the barrel with an excited cry.

The Grand Line didn’t know what was about to hit it.

•❖❖❖❖•

**User No. 44 | The Cobalt Mage  
Name: Mochizuki Shinju  
Skills:  
[Inspection]  
[Inventory]  
[Rain Shield]  
[Stone Skipping]  
[Trip]  
Passives:  
[Biological Difference]  
[Game-Game Fruit]  
[Non-Locational Damage]  
[Unnatural Existence]**

•❖❖❖❖•


	3. Outrunning Rubber

While the Straw Hats were busy trying to navigate their way through the storm; getting thrown in and out of the Clam Belt, and finally manoeuvring their ship into the Reverse Mountain current while being pelted by vicious rain and winds… Shinju was hiding back up in the crow’s nest.

‘I can’t believe I got kidnapped by pirates!’ Shinju lamented her situation, repeatedly banging her head against the top part of their mainmast. ‘Stupid. Idiot. Head.' She stopped and pressed her head against the moist wood grain instead. 'I hope they crash or something so Captain Smoker and Tashigi can catch up to arrest them and save me!’

Coming over the peak of Reverse Mountain, Shinju held in her screams as it started flying back down, wind rushing against her so fast she wondered if the main mast itself would tear off. “Mmmmmm!!!”

“So, this is the Grand Line, the greatest sea in the world!” Luffy’s excited exclamation reached her ears, and Shinju managed to get herself to slightly open her fearful eyes.

The ship broke through low clouds, rapidly descending through the atmosphere, and thin slits of skin immediately turned to wide eyes of amazement as she looked down at the glittering sea before her. It would have been a breathtaking sight if not for the small, island sized whale that suddenly loomed in front of the only exit.

It bellowed a deep call that sent Shinju’s hairs rising on the back of her neck. “BUOOOOOOH!”

‘It’s as big as the largest Sea Kings that almost ate us in the Calm Belt!’ Shinju gauged. She fearfully took in the apartment building-sized part of its body that was _showing_.

Watching them rapidly approach the whale with no stop in sight, Shinju decided that it would be better to jump ship before they crashed and she was hurtled into the ocean. Shinju lept from the crow’s nest onto the sharp rocks that lined the exiting current.

Landing with a painful, sharp thud against the stones, Shinju could hear the sound of a cannon firing and screaming as she continued to bounce her way down. Tears streaked down her face once she reached the bottom. Shinju curled in on herself with a whimper; her bones popping back into place, bruises disappearing, and torn flesh stitching itself back together.

“Ugh,” she groaned and hissed at the lingering phantom pains.

**[Health: 31%]**

Hearing the sounds of screams and cascading water, Shinju tilted her head to the side to peer through her low fringe and blood from her prior injuries. The whale had opened its mouth, sucking in the sea. A speck in the water where the now-distant screams were coming from she identified as the Straw Hat’s Ship. They were being dragged inside along with the rest of the surrounding ocean.

Her leap would have been tantamount to suicide or hospitalization without [Non-Locational Damage] making head and spinal injuries null and void – it still really hurt – but it was better than death by a whale.

‘Yeah, screw you for kidnapping me and almost getting me eaten with you,’ Shinju cursed them bitterly.

“HEY, YOU! GIVE ME MY FRIENDS BACK! Cough ‘em up!” she heard Luffy’s angered screams, an undertone of desperation and panic to it. “I SAID WAIT! GIVE ME BACK MY CREWMATES! WE WERE JUST ABOUT TO START OUR GRAND ADVENTURE! THEY’RE MY IMPORTANT FRIENDS!”

Shinju couldn’t help but feel pity welling up in her chest for him. ‘They’ll be digested within the day.’ Just before the whale submerged, Luffy ran over to a hatch on the top of the whale, opened it up, and disappeared inside.

“…If he actually manages to get them out of there, then he must have the devil’s luck,” Shinju mumbled tiredly.

•❖❖❖•

“Alright!” Luffy cheered, standing at the head of the Going Merry – of which the figurehead was currently snapped off – as they exited the whale through the giant gates Crocus had installed. “We’re out! I can see the real sky at last!”

After kicking off the two whalers from their ship and docking at the cape, Luffy finally realised something. “Hey, where’d Mochi go?!” he looked around frantically for his lost wizard.

Sanji’s own eyes widened and he straightened from his slumped position a bit to glance around them. “Right, that weirdo you picked up at Loguetown. Haven’ seen ‘em since we entered the Grand Line. Has anyone else?”

“Not a glance,” Nami said, suspicion lacing her tone. “And he must have been with us for the entire ride unless he wanted to swim in that storm.”

“Maybe he got tired and is taking a nap in the ship?” Luffy offered.

Zoro blinked awake from being half-asleep, having been about to doze off. “Nah, he jumped ship before we got swallowed by Laboon. Think I saw him tumbling down the rocks.”

“Why didn’t you say so sooner?!” Nami berated him.

Before Zoro could say something rude back and make Sanji attack him, Usopp interrupted them with a sudden shout. “Over there!” the sniper pointed further back up the Reverse Mountain, having used the small telescope he kept on him to scan the rocks. “Aaaaah!” Usopp abruptly started screaming.

“What’s wrong?” Luffy asked.

“He’s dead!!!” Usopp continued making full use of his lungs.

“We have to save him!” Luffy shot to his feet and led the charge up along the Reverse Mountain current.

“No – Luffy – more to the left!”

•❖❖❖•

Shinju blinked awake from her short nap to the sound of screaming above her.

“Old man! Save my friend!” It was Luffy’s loud voice.

“Stand back, there’s quite a bit of blood around his head, so there’s a chance he might not make it-”

“Aaah!” Shinju screamed at the sight of all the pirates looming over her in a circle. The bright backdrop of the cloudless sky cast ominous shadows over their faces – at least in Shinju’s eyes.

“Oh, he actually woke up.” Crocus was surprised the kid had enough energy to scream with all the dried blood all over her clothes.

Shinju immediately rolled between the gap in Nami and Usopp’s legs, sprinting forward for a few seconds to make some distance and turning around in a weak defensive stance once she was at least several meters away.

Luffy’s panic only took a second to wash away once he saw his wizard up and running around. “Mochi! You’re okay! Wow, you must be a pretty tough wizard.”

“You kidnapper!” Shinju pointed an accusing finger at him. “What the hell?! You can’t just shanghai people into your crew like that!”

Usopp gawked at his captain. “Wait, I know we all joined in pretty weird ways, but you really just picked someone up without their consent?!”

“Whaaat?” Luffy looked genuinely confused. “But I said meet me at the ship, and you met us at the ship, so you must have wanted to come, right?”

‘I was there to arrest you with the Marines!’ may not be the smartest thing to shout at the pirate crew, so Shinju decided to keep that bit to herself.

“That was a coincidence!” Shinju dragged her hands down her face. “Aaah…”

•❖❖❖•

After Crocus checked with Shinju that she was really okay, she isolated herself by sitting in the corner and just listening to their conversations. It’s not like she had her own ship to just sail away. Her best bet at the moment was to sit put and hope that Captain Smoker and Tashigi would chase after the Straw Hat’s into the Grand Line and pick her up here.

In the meantime, she’d continue her people watching. “[Inspection],” Shinju mumbled behind her arms that were in front of her face, folded over the top of her knees that were pulled toward her chest. Shinju’s shoes made light grinding noises as they shuffled and slid against the white sand atop of the firmer ground.

**[Straw Hat Pirate – First Mate | Roronoa Zoro – Pirate Hunter]**

‘I think Tashigi mentioned his name before, the pirate bounty hunter that uses three swords. How did he end up becoming a pirate?’ Shinju wondered.

**[Straw Hat Pirate – Sniper | Usopp]**

**[Straw Hat Pirate – Navigator | Nami – Cat Burglar]**

**[Straw Hat Pirate – Chef | Sanji – Black Leg]**

‘Usopp is the only one without an epithet. Hmm.’ Shinju let the screens disappear and turned her attention back to their conversation. For a group of pirates, they were worrying an awful lot about some random whale they had just met. ‘I can’t help but feel sorry for him too – seriously, being abandoned by his friends like that intentionally or not…’

Luffy had apparently decided he was going to do a lot more than just feel bad for the whale. However, it was undecided whether or not that was a good thing when he stood up and rushed at it with their ship’s broken mainmast.

‘What the?!’ Shinju jumped back on her feet when he started fighting the whale. ‘What’s he doing?!’

He slammed the mast down onto a fresh wound on Laboon’s head, thoroughly angering the giant marine mammal and causing it to dangerously thrash around.

“Hey! Hey kid!” Crocus shouted at him while Nami held him back.

“It’s too dangerous! Don’t worry about him, he won’t die!” And she was right – Luffy’s body simply sprung back up when Laboon squished him with his giant head and rebounded off the lighthouse when Laboon threw him back.

“Ah!” Shinju fell back, narrowly missing his body that bounced past like a rubber ball.

Luffy stopped with a grin and shouted up to the whale, “IT’S A TIE!” The whale stopped, staring at the small human in confusion. “I’m pretty though eh?” The boy grinned. “Our fight isn’t settled yet, so we’ll fight each other again! Your old friends may be dead, but I’m your new rival!” Luffy leaned back against the lighthouse. “Once my crew sails around the Grand Line, we’ll be sure to come back here to see you again. And then we’ll duke it out!”

Tears falling from the whale's eyes, it let out the first whale call they’d heard that wasn’t filled with despair or sadness, “BUOOOOHHHH!”

Shinju watched Luffy paint his flag across Laboon’s old scars. It was a physical reminder of their promise and a way to make him stop hurting his head. ‘I guess not all pirates are so bad…’

•❖❖❖•

While the Straw Hats were eating, Shinju was using a tap in the small building next to the lighthouse that Crocus had shown her to. Cleaning the blood on her skin was simple enough, but she had to make do with what she could get out of her clothes. Sanji – Luffy’s chef – leaned into the doorway while she was just finishing up, shaking cool droplets of water from her hands and throwing her cloak back on.

“Hey, you want to join us for lunch before Luffy eats everything?” He lit up a cigarette, and the smell of second-hand smoke instantly reminded her of Captain Smoker, dragging her mood back down.

**[Hunger: 83%]**

She’d already eaten some of the rations she had packed into her [Inventory] for emergencies. Tashigi, when she had seen her buying them, had thought she was worrying too much, but Shinju liked the feeling of security that being well-prepared gave her – she always had. It felt nice to be in control of something when everything else seemed so chaotic and out of her hands. [Inventory] helped with that a lot.

“Ah, no thank you,” Shinju politely declined. They all appeared to be decent people – and didn’t even know Luffy had been trying to ‘recruit’ her – so Shinju would only direct her anger towards their captain. However, any _real_ anger had quickly dissipated after today’s events. All that was left now was small, bitter embers she was holding onto more out of pride and for knocking her into the crow’s nest than anything.

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged and moved to leave but stopped a couple of steps out of the doorway. “But you should know that our captain’s pretty stubborn once he’s made up his mind.” The blonde left with a knowing pull to the corner of his lips.

‘They seem like such a nice crew,’ Shinju mused. ‘And with Luffy’s bounty, he must be pretty strong.’ That set a sort of face for the strength of the rest of them – at least the combatants – and probably their morality as well. ‘They’re out to achieve their dreams, not plunder and kill – none of them seems like the type anyway.’ Shinju frowned. ‘But could I really become a pirate?’ Shinju scoffed at herself. ‘With a captain like that, I don’t think I’d survive. Plus, I’d become a wanted criminal.’

Shinju stepped back out into the sun, squinting when the light hit her eyes. She followed the sound of the screaming and chatter.

‘But wouldn’t I regardless?’ Shinju coldly reminded herself.

“The compass! It’s broken!” The navigator, Nami, was panicking. “It’s pointing all over the place!”

The other members of the Straw Hats walked over, seating themselves around the wooden table to eat the food that Sanji had prepared while Shinju and Crocus remained standing.

‘I can’t believe I considered joining these guys,’ Shinju resisted the urge to smack her palm against her face. ‘Even I know you need a log pose to navigate the Grand Line, and I’ve only been in this world for two months.’ Studying to become a Marine and pass their written exam – and also preparing to be capable of joining their Grand Line branch – Shinju had learnt, essentially, how much common sense wasn’t going to apply to anything. That included the usage of log poses to navigate the Grand Line.

While Crocus explained this to them, Shinju watched Luffy with mild interest as he devoured piece after piece of fish meat, barely taking the time to breathe. When Luffy revealed that he had a log pose, Shinju was shocked by his insane luck once again… only to watch it get broken by their chef… and then get another from Crocus.

‘I wish I had half as much luck getting useful skills,’ Shinju internally cried with envy.

•❖❖❖•

The Straw Hat pirates set their course for Whiskey Peak and decided to take the two shady weirdoes with them on the whim of their captain. They waved goodbye to Crocus and Laboon… and apparently, Shinju too, who was standing by Crocus, waving farewell with a serene smile on her face.

Crocus glanced at Shinju through the corner of his eye. “You know, if you’re waiting for a ship to get on, I’d suggest swimming for that one.”

Shinju’s smile faltered. “No… I think we’d both be better off this way.” The otherworlder watched curiously as she saw Luffy’s retreating form suddenly run to the back of the boat and stare intensely from across the widening sea.

“Oi! Mochi!” Luffy shouted. “You forgot to get on!” Shinju’s eyes snapped wide, and she jumped backward only to stumble, giving Luffy’s extending hand enough time to wrap around her mid-section securely.

“Not again!” Shinju screamed as she was pulled into the air once more. “Aaaaaaah!”

Instead of painfully crashing into the ship, Shinju heard a call of, “Gum-Gum Balloon!” and landed in a fleshy cushion. She bounced off of with relatively no harm besides hitting her head on the deck when she fell off.

“Gah!”

“Heh, told you he’d only remember to grab him after we set sail,” Zoro smirked catching the ฿500 coin the chef tossed to him.

“Lucky guess, moss ball.” Sanji lit up another cigarette with a scowl.

“Your head okay?” Usopp asked Shinju, helping her up with a firm pull to her arm that slightly betrayed his thin appearance.

“I’m fine,” Shinju assured him before turning back to Luffy.

The two silently stared at one another, one glaring and the other confused but placing a serious look on his face anyway because it seemed to fit the moment. The rest of the crew watched, waiting to see what would happen.

Shinju crossed her arms over her chest. “You knocked me into the crow’s nest really hard.”

Luffy remained serious. “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.”

“Yeah, I forgive you,” Shinju’s expression relaxed a bit. She really couldn’t stay mad at this guy. “But I still refuse to join.”

“I refuse your refusal!” Luffy declared.

“I refuse your refusal of my refusal,” Shinju retorted just as childishly.

“What?!” The straw hat-wearing boy lurched back. He hadn’t seen it coming and didn’t know how to respond to that. Luffy’s expression scrunched up as he tried thinking really hard about it for a few long seconds before giving up. “I… refuse that!”

“Lol, couldn’t figure out you needed to say that you refuse my refusal of your refusal of my refusal?” Shinju watched Luffy’s head spin – he was visibly bamboozled. Shinju wasn’t a great liar or sneaky, but she was good at confusing people and being misleading. It was _fun_ , and something all of her friends were subjected to at one point or another.

“But you’re our wizard!” Luffy continued protesting. “And you have mystery magic!”

Ignoring Luffy, Shinju turned to the amused Straw Hats plus two extras watching them. “You guys can just let me off on the next populated island. I wouldn’t be much help to you guys anyway.”

Nami sighed. “Yeah, sorry about Luffy. Mochi, was it?”

“Mochizuki Shinju,” Shinju introduced herself with a polite smile. “Nice to meet you guys – oh, and I’m a girl.”

“Mochi’s a girl?!” Luffy running circles around a fleeing Shinju, trying to double-check she was telling the truth by looking at her from different angles.

“Told ya, moss head.” Sanji wore a satisfied smirk as Zoro had in their prior bet.

Zoro clicked his tongue and flicked the coin back. “Tch.”

The sound of heels clacking against wood approached them. “I think you and Luffy were the only ones that didn’t notice,” Nami teased after overhearing their second bet.

“I really am a girl!”

“No way! You don't have boobs like Nami!”

"It's the cloak!"

“Looks can be deceiving…” Usopp muttered to himself within earshot of Nami.

Nami scoffed. “Never mind – make that the three of you.”

“And my name is Shinju, not Mochi!”

•❖❖❖•

The sea from there on out was extremely rough, fluctuating between deadly hailstorms, glaciers, fickle winds, and constantly changing currents; they had their work cut out for them. Even though Shinju didn’t want to be on this ship, she helped out under Nami’s directions because she’d rather the ship survive the journey – with her on it – to the next island. That and feeling like deadweight in any circumstance made her feel restless. Her first ride with them didn't really count...

Once they were finally in the clear, everyone collapsed over the nearest railing or straight to the ground. Well, besides Luffy who was happily sitting on the railing of the upper deck.

“That… was horrifying!” Shinju panted.

“Am I dead? Is this heaven?” Usopp muttered to himself as he laid face down on the stairs. The warm sun on his back was a pleasant feeling after the hail, the snow, and the rain that had soaked his clothes.

“You didn’t run into the mast three times and have to be pulled back aboard by Luffy twice.” Shinju nudged his limp foot with her own, a weak mimicry of an attack.

Usopp looked up and narrowed his eyes at Shinju. “Hey! How are you still completely dry?!”

“Maaaagic,” Shinju listlessly answered.

Shinju glanced to where Ms Wednesday and Mr 9 were laying, having decided to use [Inspection] on them.

**[??? | ??? – Ms Wednesday]**

**[??? | ??? – Mr 9]**

‘I should have seen something like this coming,’ Shinju mused over this new occurrence. ‘Using [Inspection] is me ‘willing’ me to see their information, so maybe when someone keeps a secret, they ‘will’ for things about themselves not to be found out, and it counters my [Inspection]? But what happens if I increase my mastery of [Inspection] or the target themselves don’t even know their real details? Is there always a question mark, or is that only there because I _know_ those are code names and that they’re part of a larger organisation?’

Focusing more intensely on Ms Wednesday and sweat actually began to form on Shinju's brow from the intensity of her concentration. A small part of her noted how pretty the colour of Ms Wednesday’s light blue hair was.

Shinju always thought blue looked much better on other people.

**[??? - ??? | ???]**

**[??? - ??? | ??? – Ms Wednesday]**

All Shinju gained from that was a head-pounding migraine and another set of question marks. She ripped her gaze away from Ms Wednesday who turned to look in her direction as if sensing her gaze. The two screens disappeared in a slight flickering of light. Shinju cradled her head with a silent hiss. Feeling something wet dripping from her nose, Shinju dabbed her finger on her upper lip, and it came back red with blood.

**[Health: 41%]**

It had been 45% the last time she had checked since she was still healing from the fall that dropped her down to 31%. Pulling a rag from [Inventory] she wiped away the blood.

‘That really hurt,’ Shinju cringed slightly at the memory of the pain. ‘Not as bad as tumbling down Reverse Mountain though.’ She thought back to the two screens. ‘Is each one a different persona of hers? Maybe…’ Shinju was pulled from her thoughts and at the sound of an announcement.

Usopp and Shinju pulled themselves up to lean over the railing of the quarter deck to listen to Nami when she started to speak. “Don’t let your guards down, everyone!” Shinju noticed that Zoro was nursing the top of his head. Nami must have scolded him for sleeping during the storm then. “You can never expect what might happen out here!” Nami placed a hand on her hip while the other was clenched in front of her. “I finally understand just how terrifying this ocean truly is, as well as why they call it the ‘Grand Line’! I understand because _ALL_ of my navigation skills have failed to work!”

“Is life insurance a thing here?”

“Uhh… are we gonna be fine?” Usopp hesitantly asked, for the moment ignoring Shinju’s strange question since it sounded rhetorical.

“We’ll be fine! This will work out one way or another.” Nami was smiling, looking off at something at sea. “And as proof of that, look!” The crew followed her gaze. “The first leg of our journey is over.”

Huge cacti that stood at heights that were owned by Laboon’s entire length towered over the island. Dry dust carried by warm winds swirled around the island in almost graceful trails.

**[Cactus Island | Whisky Peak | Town of Welcoming]**

•❖❖❖•

Sailing upstream inland, Ms Wednesday and Mr Monday quickly departed from the ship, and the whole of the town celebrated their arrival upon identifying them as pirates. Everything about this was suspicious and screamed ‘TRAP’.

The prepared welcome signs, the confetti, the cheers themselves, and the offer to hold them a banquet especially; all in exchange for just tales of their adventures.

‘According to Ms Wednesday and Mr Nine, this town is meant to starve without the whale meat from Laboon. Yet they can afford to hold a banquet?’ Shinju's fingers anxiously pulled at the end of her cloak in front of her queasy stomach.

Shinju glanced towards Nami and Zoro since Sanji, Luffy, and Usopp were already running off to join the festivities. Nami sent her a wink, and Zoro just smirked back, fingering his swords. Shinju let out a relieved breath. At least these two weren’t as gullible. Plus, from what Shinju had seen, Nami was a relatively normal, reasonable person. Since she was remaining calm in this situation, that meant she trusted her crew’s abilities enough to make it out of this trap town safely while also enjoying the bait.

‘At least I hope so,’ Shinju thought as she followed them further into town. ‘It’s not like I have much of a choice but to stick with them for now…’

“Alright! Time for a party!!!”

•❖❖❖•

The festivities were boisterous and joyful with loud singing and energetic dancing, large platters of food at every table near a Straw Hat pirate, and barrels upon barrels of liquor. It was stifling.

‘No wonder these guys are running out of food if this is how they run their trap.’ Shinju was seated nearby Zoro on his far-left of the well-used green couch while he drunk the villagers under the table.

“You gonna hang around me all night?” Zoro questioned her, swiping away some trailing liquor from the corner of his mouth. His tone wasn’t unfriendly, simply curious.

Shinju nodded, and he could clearly see her nervousness as she nibbled on a bit of food she didn’t really seem to be enjoying. Her shoulders were tense, her knees were pressed tightly together, and he noted how she was trying to not let her eyes flicker around too much. Shinju would rather stick by a drunken swordsman in this den of wolves than be isolated in a potential group fight. And she might not have realised it yet herself, but she took small comfort in the blades that Zoro carried at his sides; it reminded her of Tashigi.

“Not very social, eh?” Zoro asked, roughly disguising his real words. ‘You’re not used to fighting, are you?’

“I kind of know my way around a light party,” Shinju replied, still not being able to focus on his eyes. ‘I can fight a bit.’ “Just never been to one this big.”

Zoro smirked, and Shinju’s eyes caught it when her eyes flickered by him. All drunkenness from his body language and sharp gaze seemed to all but disappear for an instant. “Heh, don’t worry about it.” One confused blink later, and he was back to being a drunk.

Shinju slowly pulled her gaze away from the swordsman and stared down at the barely-touched bread in her hands. ‘Ah, he’s actually telling me that everything’s going to be fine…’ Shinju wasn’t sure how she felt about being comforted by a dangerous pirate. ‘Is he arrogant, or confident?’

The young girl couldn’t help but feel more relaxed, and the tension in her body eased slightly. That is, until a couple of hours later when Zoro binge drunk himself straight into a blackout.

‘Hey, hey, hey, you’re gonna be able to wake up when they decide to attack, right?’ Shinju’s intense stare bore holes into his head. She glanced to the right of the banquet hall. ‘Luffy’s literally a ball right now, so he’s not going to be that much help either.’

Shinju decided to test out [Inspection] again.

**[??? | ??? – Miss Catherine]**

She focused a little more, and this time the hidden information expanded much more easily. Shinju wasn’t sure if it was because she had more experience using the skill, this person had a weaker will, or was currently less defensive over her real identity than Ms Wednesday.

**[Baroque Works – Millions | Blois Rhodes – Miss Catherine ]**

‘Baroque Works?’ Checking a few more, they all came up with the same organisation – even the children. ‘I hope they’re not too dangerous…’

Staring blankly ahead for a few seconds, Shinju immediately gave up trying to act relaxed and kept Zoro’s neck in her peripheral vision. She watched his throat bob as he swallowed lightly. ‘1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6…’ and again. Just a minute later when she glanced back, he repeated the action. He was awake. Shinju turned her gaze away with a quiet huff. ‘Jeeze, I almost thought he really fell asleep.’ She couldn’t remember where she’d learnt that people only swallowed around 4 times an hour when sleeping and approximately once a minute while awake, but it had come in handy. ‘I think it was from a manga…’

Shinju pretended to drift off out of boredom, slumping back into the seat of the plush couch while slowing down her breathing and blinking speed. Leaning her face into her cloak collar and against the couches left armrest, she forced her body to limpen. Pretending to sleep was surprisingly hard when she was actually tired.

•❖❖❖•

“Do you know what Baroque Works is?” Shinju whispered to Zoro. They were sneaking up to the roof now that night had fallen, and the Baroque Works members had left the building to congregate outside.

“Wha – How the hell did you figure that out?” he whispered back, his voice a tad louder and less well-controlled than her own.

‘Magic’ was the simplest terms she could put it in and explaining now would take too long. Shinju didn’t elaborate further.

Instead, Zoro did – but only a little. “They’re just some shitty secret organisation that tried to recruit me a few years back.”

“Why didn’t you tell the others?” she prodded.

“I can handle this easily myself,” Zoro smirked again.

“…You’re kinda bloodthirsty.”

•❖❖❖•

After Zoro was done making sure that everyone knew he knew what no one was meant to know, he jumped straight into the crowd of people and began to slash them down. According to Zoro, this secret organisation was pretty shitty at being a secret.

‘He’s even faster than Tashigi!’ Shinju gaped at him, leaning over the edge of the roof. His vicious strikes held a deadly grace to them as he weaved between enemies, moving with a speed that Shinju had trouble following in the dark. She wondered if she would even be able to keep up in the day.

Shinju was kindly reminded with a bullet to the head that this wasn't a time to be distracted and sticking her head out like a target.

**[Health: 65%]**

“AAAH! Tsssss…!” Shinju laid herself flat to the roof to avoid any more shots. She hissed in pain, every part of her body tensed.

The bullet in her head quickly pushed its way back out and hit the floor with a light ‘clink’, the hole in her head now closing. She let out a slow, shuddering breath. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, making heavy thumps against her ribcage which felt much too small at the moment. At least it hadn’t had enough strength to break cleanly through her skull and start bouncing around inside. She didn’t want to experience a mushed up brain while having to be alive and conscious for it.

Wiping the blood out of her eyes, she quickly ran back down the stairs to warn the others. That’s if they hadn’t already woken up from all the gunshots.

Shinju took a sharp left. ‘And I just got it back up to 70%!’ While running, Shinju vaguely realised something. ‘Bullet wounds do a lot less damage than I would expect, or maybe the physical strength of people here is just that insane.’

Having taken a wrong turn, Shinju ended up outside again. Shinju cursed her luck when she was immediately spotted by the Millions. Managing to get ahead enough that they wouldn’t have seen which turn she had made, Shinju picked up a rock and threw it into the opposite alley she had ducked into.

When the two Millions rounded the corner – following the sound of what they thought was movement – Shinju shot out of the shadows behind them. Two more stones in hand, she slammed them against the back of their heads.

**[New Skill! | Fake Noise]  
Make your sound effects come from different locations.  
Activate notification bells at will.  
The range is proportional to skill mastery.**

‘They just keep coming!’ More Millions appeared and Shinju scrambled up the side of the building. One started to climb up after her while another shot at her, grazing her arm.

While Shinju ran to the other side of the rooftop to jump to the one across, the glanced over her shoulder to see a Million just standing up on the edge she had come from. “[Trip]!” He swiftly disappeared back over the edge.

“AAAH!”

‘Looks like I can better aim where pressure that trips them is coming from to manipulate their fall direction,’ Shinju noted.

“[Fake Noise],” Shinju muttered, and she felt something intangible shift away from her body. Like a small pressure in the back of her skull, Shinju could sense and move around where the ‘speaker’ for her sounds were coming from.

‘I don’t really have enough control to complexly use this now, but at least I’ll separate my sound as far as I can from my body so that I’ll just appear silent,’ she swiftly decided. Her current max range of four meters would have to do.

Continuing to use [Fake Noise] and [Trip], Shinju escaped and evaded most of the Millions she came across. She only took a handful out directly. Individually, the Millions weren’t that strong, but their numbers would have been overwhelming if not for Zoro taking out most of them. She skidded into another alley. Not being able to hear yourself breathing deeply while the ambience remained was a strange feeling.

The sounds of battle in another part of town were getting louder instead of quieter as time went on, worrying Shinju. A dragging out battle probably meant Zoro had encountered someone above the basic thug level of the Millions.

The sound of explosions made Shinju flinch. She could feel the vibrations in the ground from here.

“[Trip]!” The woman that stepped in front of Shinju stumbled forward, and she yanked forward her overextended arm. Letting the woman’s momentum throw her into Shinju’s waiting elbow bend, she slipped behind her and held her in a tight chokehold.

‘That was so sloppy I’m surprised I managed it!’ Shinju walked backward, dragging the struggling woman out of sight. ‘If Captain Smoker saw that shitty chokehold, he’d probably throw his jitte at me.’ Shinju unceremoniously dropped the unconscious woman to the floor. She'd save her sympathy for people _not_ trying to kill her, even if this town was desperate.

“Where are all the Straw Hats?!” Shinju muttered in a panicky voice. It was only one turn in the street later when she spotted them.

Shinju stumbled into the destroyed town that was still smoking from past explosions. The air smelt heavily of gunpowder and smoke. Ms Wednesday was riding on a giant duck, and across from her, were Luffy and Zoro looked like they were ready to attack each other. Thankfully, Nami stepped in and stopped them by punching them in the face to halt their stupidity.

“Just what the heck do you think you’re doing?!” Nami grabbed them by the front of their shirts. “Well, in any case, I guess I should at least be glad that the girl is safe. You were about to cost me one billion beli!”

Shinju deactivated [Fake Noise] and jogged over. “Are you guys alright?!” Nami looked fine, but Zoro and Luffy looked pretty scuffed up. Though, not as much as the two Baroque Works agents on the ground.

Nami’s head snapped to her in surprise. “Shinju! Oh, don’t worry about these two knuckleheads, they’ll be fine. Are _you_ okay?” Shinju didn’t realise that her face was currently covered in blood.

“I’m fin-!” Shinju fell over a piece of debris and faceplanted into the ground. “Ah…”

•❖❖❖•

**[Alabasta Royal – Crown Princess | Nefertari Vivi]**

Shinju was quickly caught up on what was going on by listening in to Nami trying to extort Vivi for their protection. For a princess to go so far out of her way to train in combat and then infiltrate the organisation strong enough to try to take over her country was crazy.

‘I just keep meeting so many extraordinary people in terms of personality and strength…’ Shinju quietly watched the conversation continue. Nami seemed to be backing out of the deal since Vivi believe it would be too dangerous for them to get involved, even putting their safety – some pirates she had just met – above her own. Tashigi, Captain Smoker, the Straw Hats, Vivi – all of them were prepared to risk their lives for their dreams and goals without turning to depravity. ‘How do they get the courage to do all these insanely dangerous things?’ Shinju’s hands clenched tightly over her knees, thinking about how she compared to them.

“So, who is this boss dude anyways?” Luffy asked from his perch atop a barrel.

Vivi frantically waved her hands in front of her. “You mean the boss’s true identity?! Please don’t ask me! In fact, you’re better off not knowing! If you know, Baroque Works will come and hunt you down…”

“Hahaha, yeah, just leave us out of it. I mean, a guy who’s planning to take over an entire country must be one incredibly dangerous person!” Nami easily agreed with Vivi once she was warned of the dangers and was informed that Vivi’s unstable country wouldn’t be capable of paying them much of a reward for the risk.

Vivi nodded her head. “Yes, exactly. No matter how strong you pirates may be, you’d be no match for Crocodile, a member of the Seven Shichibukai!”

The Ex-Marine-To-Be stiffened at the sound of a familiar name on the list of Shichibukai that Captain Smoker had been complaining about. Yes, that was indeed a dangerous identity that Vivi had so casually thrown at them.

Shinju followed the gaze of the others to an otter and vulture wearing goggles, just sitting staring at them with intelligent eyes. The two animals shared a glance between them and flew away. They were out of her [Inspection] range, but she didn’t need it to know they were working for Baroque Works.

When Nami moved to run away – where to was a mystery though – the otter returned and scribbled down surprisingly accurate pictures of their faces before taking to the back of its vulture companion to disappear once more.

Shinju’s face was included in the sketches too.

Luffy and Zoro were idly chatting about fighting a Shichibukai so early into the Grand Line; Nami was crying on the ground with Vivi trying to comfort her with money; Sanji and Usopp were still asleep back in the banquet hall; and Shinju stared ahead with blank eyes, a mirthless smile on her face. She really wanted to cry… or break something.

“Shin!” Luffy bounded over. “Isn’t this so cool! We’re gonna fight a Shichibukai!”

Shinju would be left wondering for a long time why she didn't try to dodge quicker from that hand extending out to her at the Twin Capes.

•❖❖❖❖•

**User No. 44 | The Cobalt Mage  
Name: Mochizuki Shinju  
Skills:  
[Fake Noise]  
[Inspection]  
[Inventory]  
[Rain Shield]  
[Stone Skipping]  
[Trip]  
Passives:  
[Biological Difference]  
[Game-Game Fruit]  
[Non-Locational Damage]  
[Unnatural Existence]**

•❖❖❖❖•


	4. Chapter 4

They had just been seeing Igaram off, Vivi’s dear friend and head of Alabasta’s royal guard. He planned to serve as a distraction for the crew to escort Vivi back to her kingdom so that she could save Alabasta from ruin. That was all Shinju knew about him besides his devotion to his country, Vivi’s safety, and his unique rolled-hair. Though they had first been acquainted with him as an enemy, he was a good person.

Now, Shinju was staring out at the blazing ocean with a dry mouth, heart in her throat, and her hands trembling. Igaram, the moment he set out to sea in his poor Vivi disguise, was blown up in a horrible burst of sound and heat. Blinding light from the roaring flames harshly tore through the dark and Shinju’s ears were lightly ringing.

Shinju had never seen someone die before.

The fear of true realisation slowly began to winde its pressure around her throat. Shinju thought she had gotten over this, but now it was really sinking in. This wasn’t another trip to a different country for her mother’s work; this was a new world which was a thousand times more dangerous than her own. This was no magical adventure; this was a death trap…

In which she had her life in the hands of _strangers_.

“Vivi!” Nami grabbed Vivi by the shoulder, trying to pull her unwavering gaze from the water. “We have to hurry up! If they find us now, Igaram’s sacrifice would have been in vain!”

A trail of blood slipped down Vivi’s chin from her biting her lip hard enough to pierce the skin. Nami hugged the princess to her chest, promising her that they would get her to Alabasta and not let Igaram’s sacrifice be for nothing. Vivi was a strong person, and Shinju couldn’t help but admire her as much as she felt sympathetic.

Zoro snapped Shinju out of her frozen staring. “Oi, Shin! You coming?”

A mirthless, strangled laugh left Shinju’s crooked lipped smile as she followed after him. ‘It’s not like I have a choice unless I wanna _die_.’

•❖❖❖•

After the crew’s intense encounter with Ms All Sunday suddenly boarding their ship, Shinju slunk away to the back. The morning air was cold, and Shinju could see her cloudy breath on every exhale.

Shinju wondered if Little Garden was going to be as dangerous as Ms All Sunday had said. ‘It might be, or it could have been a way to convince them to use the Eternal Pose to lure them into a trap… Well, it doesn’t matter now since Luffy broke it.’ Shinju shivered. Ms Sunday had let them go on a whim - for _amusement_ \- and had been able to take down Usopp and Sanji in an instant without them seeing what she had even done. She probably wasn't even near the level of Crocodile, and that scared Shinju even more.

Using [Inventory], Shinju pulled a small notebook and pencil from her pocket. Sitting back against the railing, she started to jot down different ways to potentially apply her current skills. As she brainstormed, she stretched her inventory [Inventory] space wider, mentally pushing and prodding at the walls with her mind to slowly expand it. If she was going to worry about dying, she might as well do something productive while doing so.

“You’re not going to join us for breakfast?”

“Nami!” Shinju quickly stood up and ended up falling over her own feet. She quickly got back up. “I’m okay!”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Nami walked over to her until they were face to face but still a comfortable distance away. “I guess now is a good time to ask you how you’re holding up.”

“Hmm? How come?” Shinju absentmindedly rubbed her left arm while Nami rolled her eyes.

“Our captain accidentally-kidnapped you because he’s an idiot, you’re wanted by a dangerous criminal organisation, and now you’re stuck with us until we get this sorted out.” Nami listed off the reasons on her fingers. “You’re obviously not a fighter, and this must all be pretty tough on you.” Nami’s voice held only sympathetic understanding that made Shinju’s heart feel warmed by her consideration.

“I… I’ve got a bit of training, but I don’t think anything could have prepared me for real life-threatening situations like this, haha,” Shinju laughed quietly, looking down at her feet.

“Luffy said you wanted to explore the Grand Line.” Shinju guessed Nami’s words were close enough. “This crew is kind of crazy, and the guys are a bit stupid,” Nami grinned to herself. “but they grow on you.” Nami redirected her smile towards Shinju. “And you know, I’d be really happy to have another sane girl aboard.”

The navigator made to leave, but Shinju broke out of her jumbled thoughts and stopped her before she could. “But you don’t even know anything about me! And I don’t even have any skills that could be useful to the crew – how can you just go along with that?!”

Shinju thought the look on Nami’s face was awfully similar to the expression Sanji had made back at Whisky Peak.

“Luffy’s already calling you ‘our wizard’ so he must be pretty hell-bent on having you join us. Why? No idea, but I trust his judgement. So does everyone else. You should think about it.” Giving Shinju one last passing smile and pat on the shoulder, she disappeared from sight. “And join us for a meal sometime! Sanji’s going crazy!” she loudly added from a distance.

Shinju turned back to her notebook and pencil, yet she couldn’t focus on the words anymore.

•❖❖❖•

A few hours later when the heat was starting to increase, Luffy popped up in the middle of her planning. “Shin!”

“Ah!” Shinju flinched, almost dropping her pencil into the sea. Before she had time to recover, Luffy had grabbed her hand and was pulling her back to the main deck. Thinking it was an emergency, she quickly pocketed her book and pencil, mentally preparing herself on the way.

She was brought to a rough circle made up of a sitting Zoro, Ussop, Karoo, and crouching Sanji. Luffy plopped to the ground and pulled a bewildered Shinju down between him and his sniper.

“Sanji made drinks!” was Luffy’s explanation.

Shinju looked down in front of her and saw an awaiting beverage. A perfectly cut slice of lemon adorned the side of the glass filled with floating cubes of ice in a pretty, light pink liquid. She gratefully took the cool drink in her hands.

“Thanks, Sanji.” Shinju shot one of her usual polite smiles his way before taking a sip through the supplied straw.

“No problem,” Sanji replied back in the same casual tone, making Zoro, Luffy, Usopp, and Karoo narrow their eyes at him in suspicion.

“You’re acting weird, perverted bastard,” Zoro bluntly stated.

“You want me to take that drink back, you shitty moss head?!” the blond snapped back. “And what the hell do you mean?”

“You’re not speaking the same way you speak to Vivi and Nami!” Luffy pointed out. “But you’re not being mean!”

“Quack!”

“That’s because she’s like, what, 14?!” The usually perverted/chivalrous cook gestured towards the said girl. “What kind of weirdo do you think I am?!”

“I’m actually 16 but eh.” Shinju shrugged. She was only a few centimetres shorter than Luffy, standing at 165 cm to his 170 cm, but she guessed her less developed body compared to this world’s average made her look more like a kid than the height alone. That and the cloak didn’t help accentuate any of her anything either.

Puberty seemed to hit girls a lot harder here. Kind of like a brick to the face. And chest.

Maybe their periods hit like a brick too, or so Shinju liked to imagine, so she wasn’t so envious.

Shinju’s random trail of thoughts – that jumped between mystery puberty, how fluffy Karoo’s feather’s looked, that the fizz to Zoro’s drink made her suspect there was alcohol mixed in, and how high her hydration bar was going up – was derailed by Luffy.

“Hey, Usopp, can you make us some fishing rods?” Luffy asked.

“Fishing, eh? Not a bad idea.” Zoro grinned and took another sip of his drink.

The light, joking conversations with occasional banter continued unfalteringly, making Shinju wondered if they were worried at all about their dire situation.

Once Usopp had finished making rods for them, Luffy immediately invited Shinju to join them fishing. She declined, to his disappointment, and opted instead to continue noting down ideas. However, she sat a few feet away from where Usopp, Zoro, and Luffy were fishing over the side of the ship instead of on her own. That seemed to be enough to keep Luffy happy. He did occasionally ask her questions from time to time though.

“What’s your favourite food? It’s a kind of meat, right?!”

“Hmm… maybe sashimi.”

Luffy pulled up another empty hook; his bait was stolen. “What kind of stuff do you like to do for fun?”

“Playing games,” Shinju answered, not realising that their first assumptions of a ‘game’ would be vastly different. While Shinju thought of RPGs, MMOs, and TCGs, Luffy’s mind went to things like hide-and-seek and tag.

“Me too!” Luffy grinned and let his hook drop back down into the water with a ‘plop’.

While Zoro stopped fishing to take a nap, Usopp and Luffy continued to pull up fish every now and then, putting them into two water-filled barrels sitting just behind them. A bucket had been too small for a few of the fish they were catching. Curious, Shinju crawled over to the barrels and peered inside, using [Inspection] on each one. Some species were familiar, but most weren’t.

**[Fish | Bigeye Trevally]**

The fish with enough room to move swirled colourfully in the barrel, shiny scales and luminous fins highlighted by the mid-morning sun. She stared at them intently, wondering if they were all safe to eat and vaguely aware that Luffy would be able to eat everything in here with a few stretched mouthfuls.

Having used [Inspection] on the fish so many times, Shinju felt something _click_.

**[Fish | Bigeye Trevally | Edible]**

Shinju’s eyes widened in pleasant surprise. ‘I guess knowing what’s edible might be useful if I ever have to fish or gather food for myself after I leave. Hmm, I wonder if poisoned food or spiked drinks show up as inedible, poisonous, or poisoned? ...Wait a sec, when the hell did this ultra hard mode fantasy RPG turn into a shitty survival game?’

Ignoring those thoughts for now, Shinju quietly decided to give herself the task of dividing the safe and unsafe fish to eat into the two different barrels, using a cloth around her hand so she didn’t cut them on sharp gills or fins. The concentration involved with using the new [Inspection] technique at such numbers was enough to make her sweat. When Vivi glanced over, she wondered what about the fish had Shinju so enamoured.

As time continued to slowly pass, maybe the splashing water of the caught fish never hit the unsuspecting backs of the three fishing pirates. Shinju assumed no one would look close enough to notice the water droplets hanging in the air, sprinkled against her invisible barrier.

Maybe the sharp-eyed sniper did.

•❖❖❖•

“What’s this?” Shinju asked, crouching down next to the workstation that Usopp had made of the floor. Bottles, powders, and other equipment were scattered out over the little section of the deck he’d claimed.

“I’m working on my new Deathly Spicy Tabasco Star of Hell!” Usopp proclaimed, holding up a small red marble between a pair of pliers. To Usopp’s surprise, Shinju plopped down next to him and made herself comfortable.

“You don’t mind if I watch, right?” Shinju asked a tad hesitantly under Usopp’s shocked stare.

“Wait wait wait you’re actually interested in this?!” Usopp gestured widely to his set up. Sure – the others had shown _some_ levels of varying interest, but never enough to sit down with him and watch him work for more than a few seconds.

“I mean, it looks cool,” Shinju sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “Plus using tabasco or other spicy things as ammo sounds pretty interesting. You could shoot them in the eyes or mouth, and it would be distracting if not completely blinding.”

Usopp felt his chest puff up in pride in his work. “Right! That’s what I was going for! It doesn’t matter how strong you are if you’ve got one of these in your eyes!”

“How good are you with a slingshot though?” Shinju cocked her head to the side. It wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t actually hit them in the eye or mouth.

“Hehehe!” Usopp grabbed this slingshot and pointed over to Zoro who had walked out onto the deck with an unopened bottle of liquor. “Zoro, let me help you with that!"

Zoro glanced between his bottle, Usopp with his slingshot in hand, and a curious Shinju. ‘Oh, he’s trying to show off – whatever, I guess. I still get my alcohol.’

“Go ahead,” Zoro shrugged. In the next instant, the cork of his liquor bottle popped off, and Zoro walked off with an open drink. “I’m not picking that up,” he added as he passed them, referring to the cork and lead marble.

“How are you that precise?!” Shinju’s head whipped back to Usopp.

“Hahaha! I, The Great Usopp, never miss! They call me the Sniper King!” He planted his hand on his hips with this head tilted upwards. Breaking his pose, Usopp quickly scuttled over the deck to pick up his ammunition and the cork. “Right! That reminds me, I’ve got something for you.” Usopp dug around his equipment, searching for something.

“For me?” Shinju stepped back to give Usopp more room to search.

Usopp stood back up and pushed a small pouch into Shinju’s hands. “Normal humans like us need to look out for each other since we can’t flatten buildings like those three monsters! These are just some smoke bombs I think might come in handy. Just throw ‘em to the ground and they’ll go, poof! Then you can run away or hide and wait for the Great Usopp to appear to save the day!”

Shinju smiled down at the pouch in her hands, rubbing her thumb over the coarse cloth. “Thanks, Usopp. I really appreciate it.”

•❖❖❖•

It was another morning on the ship, and everyone was eating breakfast together the room that combined the kitchen, helm, lounge, meeting room, and dining area into one place. As usual, Luffy stole food from the other’s plates alongside the constantly shifting banter and conversations going on at the table.

Just one thing was missing; there was an empty seat waiting at the table.

It had been an entire four days of sailing since Whisky Peak, and Shinju hadn’t entered this room to sit down. The chef clenched his fork in his hand almost hard enough for it to bend. He hadn’t seen Shinju eat _once._ And he knew she wasn’t taking food without anyone noticing because he took meticulous stock of their pantry due to Luffy’s ravenous appetite and desire for constant ‘snacks’.

Yet her cheeks weren’t thinning, her complexion remained healthy, she didn’t sleep extra, and he never heard her stomach make any sounds. She seemed completely normal.

Sanji had been wanting to prepare her a delicious meal or make her favourite food as a bit of an apology for his captain dragging her into this mess and for helping around the ship. Shinju, as meek as Usopp as she could sometimes be, was as stubborn as Luffy when it came to wanting to help out in some way. Admittedly, not in the upfront or headstrong way that their captain went about doing what he wanted, but more subtly helping and cleaning things up when they weren’t looking.

She even kept Luffy entertained – which Shinju didn’t consider ‘helping out on the ship’, but Sanji, Nami, and Zoro sure did.

When Sanji had asked her to join them, she had said, _‘_ Eat with you guys? But you didn’t get to stock up at Whisky Peak, we don’t know when we’ll reach Little Garden, and you probably didn’t expect three more passengers. I’ll be fine! Magic Devil Fruit and all that. I've got rations that'll last me another week or so.’

As the situation was, Sanji wasn’t in a position to push it since her health remained the same. Luffy hadn’t had any luck either. However, magic or not, if she didn’t get her ass in here eventually and eat a proper meal, he might just drag her to her seat at the table.

•❖❖❖•

“Shin! Play tag with us!” Luffy burst into the women’s quarters where she was reviewing the school textbooks that had come along with her for the cross-dimensional ride. “What’s that?” he looked down at the thick book in her hands. The front page was glossy and shiny, and Luffy ran his finger over it. “Ooh! It’s all slippery!”

Shinju passed Luffy the book at let him examine it. “It’s just a school textbook.”

“School? Why are you studying for school when you’re our pirate wizard?” Luffy stuck his tongue out in a dramatic display of disgust. “Bleh! Books are boring! Even when they’re shiny!”

“Well, I need to keep studying my class content in preparation for when I go back.” Shinju shrugged. “And I’m not a pirate or part of your crew… And I am a _mage_.”

Luffy paused for a moment. “Do you enjoy school that much?”

“No, not really,” Shinju promptly answered with a tinge of bitterness to her voice that Luffy knew wasn’t directed at him. “But I have to do it anyway.”

The assignments, the tests, the exams, the finals – that she had _missed_ in her disappearance meaning she might have to retake the _entire_ _year_ – the idiots, the drama, the unspoken pressure from her mother, and – yeah. Shinju didn’t have to consider what her answer was. It wasn’t _too bad_ , but it was still unpleasant, to say the least.

Luffy frowned hard and his eyebrows furrowed. It was obvious to Shinju that he was trying to think awfully hard about something… and thinking hard was a very effortful thing for Luffy.

The straw-hat-wearing boy seemed to figure out a solution when his expression turned to one of determination. Taking her book with him, he walked over to the mounted bookshelf with heavy steps and stretched his arms up. He smacked the book on the very top where he thought Shinju couldn’t reach it, and Luffy was feeling pretty proud of himself as he took a second to admire his work.

Shinju, knowing she just needed a chair to grab it if she wanted to, watched the scene with a deadpan expression.

“Now, let’s go play tag with Usopp, Vivi, and Zoro!” Luffy grabbed her lightly calloused hand in his rougher one, dragging her outside.

“Wait, you were serious?!” Shinju managed to keep up without falling. “And I don’t think Vivi or Zoro will join us.”

“Then we’ll convince them! Shishishi!”

Luffy’s laugh and energy were just as infectious as when she had first met him in Loguetown. Maybe even more so if her own spreading grin was anything to go by. Shinju could leave her calculus for the moment, and maybe it was the right choice. Running across the deck like an idiot with Luffy and Usopp was _fun_ as a pissed off Zoro chased them down. It was a shame Vivi didn’t join in.

Surround by carefree pirates, the longing for home, the fear, the paranoia, and the queasy feeling of danger all seemed to slip away in the moment.

•❖❖❖•

It took another day of sailing to finally reach Little Garden. It turned out the name was a complete misnomer, as there was nothing small about the giant, sprawling jungle before them.

“Just what about this is _little_?” Usopp questioned fearfully, speaking aloud Shinju’s exact thoughts.

The unidentifiable, beastly calls were putting the saner members of the crew on edge. There weren’t too many of those on board.

“And look!” Nami directed their attention to the plants that lined the river their ship was sailing up. “I’ve never seen any plants like these, even in my encyclopedia!”

“Gyaaa! Gyaaa!” a shrill cry came from above them, frightening Nami and Usopp.

“Terrified Nami is so cute~!” Sanji cooed before trying to comfort her. “Don’t worry it’s just a normal bird. And even this island, is nothing but your average jungle!”

“A lizard?” Luffy awed up at the strange, feathery creature.

‘It’s a Microraptor!’ Shinju internally gushed as she watched the feathered lizard glide past them. The familiar form was unmistakable, but maybe a little larger than in the fossils and CGI models back home. ‘Well, maybe not – but close enough!’

A loud boom sent the ship trembling with vibrations.

“Does this _sound_ like your average jungle?!” Nami panicked.

Usopp, of course, joined in. “That sounded like a volcano erupting or something!”

‘I can’t believe it’s a prehistoric island!’ Shinju continued letting her inner dinosaur nerd take over. The more reasonable part of her brain – that had taken the back seat for the moment – was panicking along with Usopp and Nami.

“Sanji! Prepare a lunchbox!” Luffy was practically vibrating with excitement.

“A lunchbox?” Sanji took another drag from his cigarette. They’d just eaten lunch not too long ago, but conventional eating habits didn’t apply to Luffy.

“Yeah, a prate lunchbox!” Luffy grinned. “I smell adventure ahead!”

As Sanji walked back up to the Going Merry’s kitchen to prepare his captain’s vegetable-less lunchbox, Nami noticed Shinju’s barely contained energy.

“You look strangely excited,” Nami commented, eyeing Shinju.

“Well – I’ve never seen live dinosaurs before!” Shinju grinned.

“There are dinosaurs here?!” Nami and Usopp cried.

“At least I think so.” Shinju habitually rubbed the back of her neck. “There was a Microraptor gliding over us before, and I think I might have seen a Sauropod too. That, and most of the plant life is made up of ferns and pine trees. A pretty prehistoric setting.”

“Sauce pod?” Luffy cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Can you eat them?”

“Probably,” Shinju shrugged. “They’re the one with the _super_ long necks!”

Sanji came back down with Luffy’s pirate lunch box and handed it to him in a backpack. With that, Luffy and Vivi immediately took off into the jungle to explore.

Shinju watched as Sanji seemed to calculate something and count on his fingers a bit, murmuring some numbers and days. “Meat shouldn’t be a problem if Zoro hunts something edible, but we’re short on vegetables too… Tch, forget it.”

‘Maybe I can use [Inspection] to find some edible plants to substitute,’ Shinju realised.

Just as Zoro was above to leave for a walk, Sanji called out to him. “Oi, Zoro, wait!” Zoro paused with a questioning hum. “We’re running out of food onboard so if you see any animals that look edible, can you hunt it down and bring it back?”

“Sure thing,” but before Zoro could say anything more, Shinju joined the conversation.

“Would it be alright if I go with you?” she asked. “My Devil Fruit ability lets me learn random spells, and I’ll be able to identify what’s edible or not using one of them. I can also pick up some edible plants, berries, and nuts if I can find them too.” Shinju directed the last bit to Sanji, turning to face him.

“So, I was right!” Sanji snapped his fingers. “You were the one that sorted out the fish – knew none of those idiots could have done it. Only thing is, some of the fish you sorted as inedible are fine to eat when prepared properly. But there were no mix-ups in the edible side. Should be fine for you to bring back some stuff, and just leave worrying about palatability to me.”

“No problem!” Shinju smiled, feeling happy to be able to help… and maybe go see some dinosaurs without too much fear of death. Zoro and Luffy had shown their scarily destructive capabilities off plenty back at Whisky Peak. She could also infer that Sanji was pretty strong too with a short and violent spat she’d seen him have with Zoro.

“Try to make sure he doesn’t get you guys too lost. Actually, you just lead him around and bring him back with you. Oi, Usopp, we got any bags?” Sanji turned to the sniper.

“Sure do! I’ll go-” Usopp took a step to go grab one but Shinju stopped him, waving her hands in front of her.

“It’s fine, Usopp! I can just use my storage spell!” Shinju jumped off the edge of the ship and failed at sticking her landing. “Pff!” Spitting some grass from her mouth, Shinju quickly rolled back to her feet. An awkward moment of silence passed. “Onwards!” Shinju declared, ignoring the tumble as if it hadn’t happened.

“Alright then, about time,” Zoro turned and started to lead the way deeper into the island. “I’ll go hunt for some animals that you’d never be able to kill yourself,” he nonchalantly taunted the smoking chef.

“Wait right there!” Sanji immediately shouted back, his calm demeanour flipping straight to aggression. “Did I hear you wrong, or did you just imply that you could hunt bigger game than me?” Sanji scowled and tilted his head back challengingly.

Zoro angled his body toward Sanji to face him. “Isn’t that obvious?”

Sanji slammed his shoe onto the railing. “That’s it! I challenge you at hunting!” Sanji leapt gracefully from the ship and landed across from Zoro and Shinju. “Whoever brings back the most kilograms of meat will be the winner!”

“Fine by me. Though, in my case, it’ll be tonnes of meat.” Zoro’s voice wasn’t raised like Sanji’s but, it held the same competitive tone.

“And I’m gonna bring back the most plants!” Shinju gave a dramatic thumbs-up, jokingly adding herself into the competition.

“Good luck, Shin – I hope you get eaten, shitty swordsman!” and Sanji left, disappearing into the undergrowth to the right of the ship.

“Tch, I’ll show that bastard,” Zoro grumbled under his breath as he headed left.

Nami and Usopp watched as Zoro almost got turned around in a circle back to the ship within the first few meters and Shinju tripped over a root, face planting into some ferns.

“Are those two going to be okay?” Nami questioned.

“Right, they’re both kinda hopeless in their own special way.” Usopp watched them disappear.

“So… Looks like it’s just us…”

“Yep… Now that Luffy, Vivi, Zoro, Shinju, and Sanji have all left…” All of their fighters were gone. Fearful sweat streaked down Usopp’s face. His voice wobbled, “Why can’t you be a little more dependable?”

“That’s _my_ line!”

•❖❖❖•

“[Inspection].” Shinju reached down and picked up another edible plant after checking for mould. “[Inspection]... [Inspection], [Inspection], [Inspection]-”

“Do you have to say it every time?!” Zoro finally snapped.

Shinju paused in the middle of pushing a long-stalked plant into the handwoven seagrass basket hanging from her right hip. “Nope,” was Shinju’s reply as she maintained awkwardly long eye contact with him and continued to slip the plant away. It’s opening had a wide circumference and that’s all Shinju needed since the extra length of the plants would just slide directly into her [Inventory]. “I don’t have to say my skills – or spells – command lines out loud. But that’s the base activation system outlined by my Devil Fruit, so it’s easier to cast that way.”

Zoro pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, you have to say it out loud or you might poison us-”

“Not really how that works, but alright.”

“-but do you have to say it for _every_ single damn plant?”

Shinju turned back to Zoro from picking up another mushroom and silently stared at him with childishly wide eyes. “You’re a lowkey genius! I’ll try it now!”

‘The hell does lowkey mean?’ Zoro wondered. ‘But I’m pretty that was some sort of compliment…”

Usually, Shinju focused on just one target when using [Inspection]. This time, she tried to make her attention less tunnel-visioned and spread out her energy. “[Inspection]!” Starting to test it out, Shinju found herself distracted as another Microraptor glided past and colourful plants tried to take up her attention.

It was like a violent wind had ripped away from Shinju her control and dispersed it across the entire forest.

This was a mistake.

**[Dinosaur | Microraptor | Edible]**

**[Plant | Moss | Edible]**

**_ [Health: 98%] _ ** **[Plant | Wollemi Pine] [Fungi | Sea Purple Lichen | Poisonous] **

** [Fungi | Reaping Cap | Poisonous] ** **[Plant | Ginkgo] _[Health: 94%]_**

**[Plant | Yellow Creeping Vine] _ [Health: 86%]_**

**[Fungi | Lion’s Mane | Edible, Medicinal] _[Health: 81%]_ [Plant | Wollemi Pine] [Plant | Soft Tree Fern]**

**[Plant | Dutchman’s Pipe] [Plant | Ginkgo] [Plant | Soft Tree Fern] [Plant | Green Hair’s Foot Fern] [Plant | Dutchman’s Pipe] [Insect | Scarlet Centipede] [Fungi | Lion’s Mane | Edible, Medicinal] [Plant | Soft Tree Fern] _[Health: 77%]_ [Plant | Yellow Creeping Vine] [Fungi | Spiked Lichen | Poisonous] **

**[Insect | Bullet Ant] [Plant | Soft Tree Fern] [Plant | Green Hair’s Foot Fern] [Fungi | Lion’s Mane | Edible, Medicinal] [Plant | Stag Horn Fern] _[Health: 73%]_ [Insect | Horse Fly] [Plant | Hard Fern] [Plant | Yellow Creeping Vine] [Plant | Ginkgo] [Plant | Wollemi Pine] _ [Health: 68%]_ [Fungi | Spiked Lichen | Poisonous] _[Health: 62%]_ [Plant | Ginkgo] [Plant | Soft Tree Fern] [Plant | Dutchman’s Pipe] [Plant | Green Hair’s Foot Fern] [Fungi | Reaping Cap | Poisonous] [Insect | Black Ant] [Insect | Black Ant] _[Health: 59%]_**

Shinju’s entire field of vision filled with floating labels as everything in sight became subject to [Inspection] _all at once_. Her throat closed up, choking on the sensation of her head splitting in two. Tears ran down her burning eyes. The ringing in her ears was sharp and deafening.

“ _Toomuchtoomuchtoomuch_ ,” Shinju subconsciously muttered in an ominous mantra. She desperately wanted to shut her eyes or get the labels to just **_close,_** but she was frozen _._ All she could see was flashing blue signs all vying for her attention – and did she mention _her head was **splitting**?_

The seconds were blurring together, and she didn’t know how long she was standing there.

If felt like too long.

**[Straw Hat Pirate – First Mate | Roronoa Zoro – Pirate Hunter]**

Her vision filled with pretty light green and white. “Oi! You need to cut off whatever magic you’re pulling,” the voice was as rough-edged as it was grounding.

Oh. He was in the way of all the screens.

•❖❖❖•

When Zoro noticed the kid’s breath hitch and pupils start unnaturally dilating and contracting in rapid succession, he didn’t think too much of it. He thought it must have been a magic thing.

Then red began to bubble up from her tear ducts, blood trailing down her face in bright bloody streaks turned watery from mixed in tears of pain.

“ _Toomuchtoomuchtoomuch_ ,” she kept muttering and Zoro finally had an idea of what the hell was happening. She was trying to see the ‘labels’, as she called them, on more than one thing at a time and had completely lost control if her state was anything to go by.

Zoro was tempted to just slap his hands over her eyes but didn’t think it would be a good idea to touch them. Instead, he stood in front of her with his broad chest completely blocking her view and said the first thing that came to mind.

Shinju blinked. “Ah…” Her knees started to collapse under her weight, and Zoro swiftly caught her under her arms. Her cloak only minimally got in the way.

“Sit down.” He lowered her onto the thick root of a tree, and she leaned herself against the mossy trunk.

“T-Thanks…” Shinju’s sight was bleary, but the headache was quickly subsiding.

It had been a startling, painful, reminder that as similar her Game-Gamer Fruit abilities were to the RPGs she played back home – _they weren’t_. Skills weren’t simple and instantaneous things done with a single click of a button and worked without fail. Her skills were _skills_ that needed to be studied and trained if she wanted to control them.

Zoro stared at her as she sat there just focusing on breathing. She was trembling. “I’m taking you back to the ship.”

Blurred together thoughts began to rush through Shinju’s mind at that sudden statement. ‘But Zoro needs to help Sanji get food for the crew and I need to get edible plants and if we got back now then Zoro might lose his competition with Sanji because of my interference and-’

Shinju immediately tried to stand up. “N-no way!”

Zoro kept the stubborn idiot down with a firm hand pressing down on the top of her head. “You need to get your injuries checked out by Nami or something.” His voice was stern and without room for argument.

“I just needed to deactivate [Inspection] and collect myself!” Shinju reached up and grabbed his wrist with both hands in an attempt to shove it off while her legs tried to push her up. “Hhhh!”

Zoro’s scowl deepened. “That’s it, I’m knocking you out.” With the hilt of Yubashiri, he knocked Shinju in the head with enough force to send her into unconsciousness.

She instead cried out in pain and quickly rolled away from him, popping up a couple of meters away from which she backpedalled a bit. “Ow! What was that for?!”

“Huh? That didn’t work?” Zoro raised a confused brow, scowl gone for the moment and replaced with a curious expression. The kid didn’t seem that tough.

“I physically cannot be knocked out, please don’t try again. It just hurts,” Shinju explained with a monotone voice and deadpan expression. “My eye injuries are also all healed because of that too.”

‘I don’t want to explain [Non-Locational Damage] to him right now.’ Shinju had decided. ‘If I do, then he’ll ask what per cent I’m on, and then he’d make us turn back since I’m _technically_ almost half dead right now.’

“More magic of yours?” Zoro propped Yubashiri on his shoulder, looking ready to hit her with it again.

“Yeah.” Shinju sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. “And when I push my spells too much then I start hurting myself. I completely lost control of my ability then and couldn’t turn it off… Ah, but when you blocked my vision, it snapped me out of it. Thanks!”

Zoro shot her a sceptical glance before turning around and starting to walk again. The idiot was still trembling, but she wasn’t technically part of their crew. If she really wanted to keep pushing herself, then it wasn’t his place to stop her.

He didn’t have to turn around to know she was following when he heard unsteady footsteps come stumbling after him.

•❖❖❖•

One hour later, Shinju’s health had gone back up to 73% from chewing on the random plants labelled ‘Medicinal’ that she had picked up. Unpleasantly textured but thankfully tasteless, they were slowly increasing her health. Meanwhile, Zoro was a step behind Shinju, following her as she located different landmarks and stone piles she’d made.

Shinju hummed happily. She had gotten to see a lot of different types of recognisable and almost alien-looking dinosaurs from a distance. There had even been a pack of Velociraptors that surrounded them – Zoro cut them down while Shinju screamed and hid behind his back– and she was able to admire their feathery carcases.

Zoro was also looking subtly pleased with himself as he dragged behind him a strange horned lizard by one of its pointy protrusions. Apparently, the thing was edible, and a dinosaur called a Triceratops, not a rhino. Zoro scowled a bit at the memory of the shitty cook and wondered if he should get a bigger one just in case.

Noticing a lack of footsteps echoing his, Zoro glanced back.

‘Huh, she’s gone.’ Zoro assumed she was around the other side of the dinosaur then. ‘Maybe she’s grabbing another plant.’ She’d started using [Inspection] again around fifteen minutes ago but had kept it only one plant at a time. Turning back in front of him, Zoro saw Shinju’s recognisable cobalt highlighting of her cloak in the distance. ‘How the hell did she get all the way over there?!’

“You’re gonna get yourself killed if you run off,” he scolded her in an annoyed tone when he caught up. She was eerily still. Thinking she might have been caught in her ability again, he quickly reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder to turn her around. “Oi, Shin! ...Huh?”

•❖❖❖❖•

**User No. 44 | The Cobalt Mage  
Name: Mochizuki Shinju  
Skills:  
[Fake Noise]  
[Inspection]  
[Inventory]  
[Rain Shield]  
[Stone Skipping]  
[Trip]  
Passives:  
[Biological Difference]  
[Game-Game Fruit]  
[Non-Locational Damage]  
[Unnatural Existence]**

•❖❖❖❖•


	5. Blood and Burns

**[New System Warning! | From this point on, Overseas Survival's content contains possibly graphic depictions of violence and some dark themes (M). This will be a general warning as well as the only warning so as to not spoil future events.]**

* * *

Casting a glance back over her shoulder, Shinju found herself alone. “Zoro?”

Quickly stood back up, abandoning the berries she had leaned down behind a large tree root to pick. She cast her flicking gaze back and forth over the forest. Spinning around in a complete circle, she tried her best to keep her breathing from picking up. She flinched at the sound of a distant dinosaur call.

‘He can’t have gotten far,’ Shinju reassured herself. ‘This is fine – he’s in green and white so I probably just missed him.’

She called out his name louder this time but still received no reply. Looking down, she saw the trail that dragging the Triceratops behind him had made. Smacking a palm to her head, she started to follow it. But soon the path started to become unclear of what had been Zoro’s doing and what were natural paths created by grazing herbivores.

Turning her head to the left, she saw Zoro in the distance. “Hey! You left me behind!” She quickly jogged over. The distant sound of Zoro’s voice behind her was lost to loud footfalls.

•❖❖❖•

Shinju flinched when she was tossed to the ground next to Zoro and Nami. The realistically painted models of each other that had been scattered around the forest had fooled them. They’d all been captured by Mr 3, the wielder of the Wax-Wax Fruit.

‘I can’t believe we were caught so easily!’ Shinju couldn’t even shift in her restraints; they felt as sturdy as metal.

“Shit,” Zoro cursed, straining against the wax.

Their legs and arms were trapped in Candle Locks, and not even Zoro, who could drag behind him a fully-grown Triceratops like it was a sack of potatoes, could break it. Alongside Vivi who had also been captured, they were stuck onto a gigantic wax construction. The huge slabs were stacked high as one would a layered wedding cake. Small flakes of wax started drizzling down on them from the spinning contraption of melting candles above.

It was only after Mr 3 declared that they were going to be turned into wax figures on his Service Set – like sick displays of art – that Shinju’s stomach dropped.

Tears burned in her eyes as she held in coughs from the wax invading her insides. Shinju’s stiff neck turned toward the giant next to them. He was secured to the ground by wax and managed break free – only to get his hands and feet pinned back down again. Huge wax blades were stabbed through his appendages, turning them into bloody messes. Shinju didn’t know how they were going to combat the powers of a Devil Fruit user that not even a giant could.

‘Ah, right, we can’t,’ she numbly accepted. White began to crust over the side of Shinju’s face, her arms, shoulders, and other random patches of her. It painfully froze parts of her body into place as the wax hardened over her skin like a shell.

Shinju ignored the panic shouts and the almost manic laughter of the Baroque Work agent, too caught up in his messed up fantasies. She couldn’t help but envision her mother’s face. A soft oval, a delicate jawline, long black hair, a small smile made of full lips, pale skin, and lifeless brown eyes that bore into her blues one. She had never been looking at Shinju.

At least she wouldn’t die living in hopeless delusions as her mother had.

“Tearing off your arms and legs,” Zoro’s voice cut through the haziness of Shinju’s thoughts that had disconnected her from the present. “will be a lot more useful than being dead.” He slowly drew his blade as he spoke to the pinned giant. “I can still move as well.” The young high schooler stared up at him incredulously as he smirked. “Once I cut my feet off, would you like to help me crush these bastards?”

She was stunned into silence, whatever words she might have said to that dying in her throat.

“Y-Your feet?! You’re going to cut off your own feet?! Are you joking?! What do you think you’re saying in a time like this?!” Nami had no such inhibitions.

‘Isn’t it hopeless?’ Shinju stared at his calm, unwavering expression.

“It’s because we’re in a time like this that I’m saying it,” Zoro continued, waving his blade near Shinju who was trapped between him and the orange-haired navigator. “Why, what will you do?”

Vivi agreed with Nami, “What do you mean ‘what’? It’s useless! Even if we were to do that and get down from here, they’d catch us again in an instant!”

‘Isn’t there no point in trying when we’ve already lost?’ The hair in the Shinju’s eyes did nothing to obscure the view of this insane man and the slight trembling of his blades.

“Can’t know until you try, y’know?” Zoro drew another blade from its sheath. “Standing here is only going to bring us a certain death. Might as well go down and painfully struggle to our very last breath!”

“Wait for me! I’ll fight too!” Vivi decided.

Something he said must have struck a chord with Shinju because an unfamiliar feeling of tenacity began to ran rampant in her blood. She didn’t want to die.

Her heart was picking up the pace.

Shinju pulled at one of her legs and didn’t stop. She kept pulling and pulling and _pulling_ until the skin caught under the wax that went up over her boots began to tear. She was even about to reach over and steal one of Zoro’s swords because of how sharp she knew they were.

A crisp chime of bells rung throughout the clearing.

**[New Skill! | Autotomy]  
Requirement: sacrifice health  
The user can cast-off body parts at will.  
Health sacrificed decreases with proficiency.**

**[Health: 68%]**

Agents, pirates, and princess looked on with equal parts of shock and horror and Shinju’s legs suddenly ripped off from her thighs without warning.

‘To fight desperately sounds a lot better than giving up and praying for a miracle,’ Shinju decided. Within a second of falling, Shinju was sprinting barefoot toward the Baroque Works agents, leaving behind her leg filled boots. ‘This is… different!’

“That’s _sick_ ,” Mr 5 cringed and aimed his finger at Shinju and prepared to use his Bomb-Bomb Fruit.

She muttered something under her breath.

Throwing a large handful of smoke bombs into the clearing, she quickly darted to another section of the wide cloud to throw him off while still closing the gap. She had to close the gap. Even if each step forced the patches of wax on her skin to bite into her flesh, and her instincts were screaming for her to just dart into the forest and bolt.

“Fancy Cannon!”

**[Health: 47%]**

Not able to evade the attack entirely, Shinju’s left side was caught in the blast. It was devastatingly powerful from the close range and extra time Mr 5 had to prepare it. It took off her left arm, leaving parts of her flesh melted over her gory remnant of a shoulder.

Everything _burned._

Her scream was loud and unsuppressed. Hearing the loud cry of pain from the left of the Fancy Cannon blast that had divided the smoke into two halves, the agents expected the small girl to be lying in the dirt on the left.

Shinju emerged from the right smoke cloud directly in front of Mr 3, mouth opened in an expression twisted in an expression of agony with no sound coming from it and a pistol in hand. She frantically shot at Mr 3, but he didn’t feel the need to move. He blocked the bullets with his wax, not seeing the girl running at him as a real threat. He was left stunned when his eardrum burst to the sound a gunshot going off next to – no, _in his ear_.

He took a step to retreat, his ears still sharply ringing, and Shinju immediately retaliated with, “[Trip]!” The usually experienced fighter turned into an unstable mess in an instant.

Mr 5 shot another explosive blast at Shinju’s extended right arm, her finger about to pull the trigger on Mr 3 again unhesitatingly. Blowing off her remaining hand along with her gun, her wail was a mixture of frustration pain from being so _close_. Her shot had missed and instead hit Mr 3 in the knee.

**[Health: 42%]**

“AAAAAAAH!!!” Shinju followed Mr 3 to the ground, pinning his lower body with her legs and his shoulder with her right stump where her wrist was meant to be.

The two cried loudly in pain, but soon only Shinju was left screaming as she slammed her head down with enough force to give the both of them severe concussions. With a loud clack of bones, the wax he had started to form over himself fell limp. Mr 3 was out cold.

There was a stunned silence, and the spinning of the Service Set slowly came to a halt. It was no longer turning the captured Straw Hats and giant into wax figures since the wax mist ceased to fall.

Shinju couldn’t believe it, and neither could anyone else. It had been a mad, blurred rush of adrenaline. She had somehow scraped by with the element of surprise, unpredictability, luck, and Mr 3’s own arrogance leaving him off guard.

The quiet didn’t last long.

“Don’t relax just yet!” Ms Valentine kicked Shinju off and stomped on her chest. “100-kilo press!”

Shinju’s sternum cracked under the heavy pressure and her chest exploded with pain. She coughed up a mouthful of blood which ran down all sides of her face and chin. Instead of the pain fading and wound healing, Ms Valentine’s foot kept pressing harder and harder, preventing [Non-Locational Damage] from beginning to physically heal her. It felt like she was drowning in the blood that was pooling in her squashed lungs.

**[Health: 29%]**

“Shit! Hang on!” Zoro called, finally snapped out of his shock. He was half-way through cutting his legs when Luffy, Usopp and Karoo burst onto the scene.

The three let out their battle cry in unison. “ORYAAAAA!!!”

“You there! Get ready to have your asses kicked!” Luffy shouted as they overshot and flew past, smashing through the trees on the other side of the clearing. They quickly ran back. “Let’s do this, Usopp! Bird!” It was then that Luffy noticed the familiar blob of navy blues and cobalt that was looking all too red, pinned beneath the woman in yellow. From this angle, Luffy could clearly see a missing arm along with a half-burnt-away cloak.

“Shinju!” Usopp pulled back the string of his slingshot. “H-Hey, say something!”

She could only wheeze and pathetically writhe in pain beneath the heavy foot pressing down on her half crushed chest.

“GET THE HELL OFF OUR WIZARD!!!” Luffy lunched forward in an uncontrollable rage.

Luffy went soaring overhead with Ms Valentine. With the pressure gone, Shinju’s sternum and ribs popped and snapped back into place, allowing her to turn on her side with the support of her forearm. She hacked up a lungful of blood and sucked in greedy breaths.

Seeing that Usopp, Luffy, and Karoo had come for them, Mr 5 was down, and the Service Set had been stopped, it felt as if a second wind had hit her. She rolled back onto her feet.

Usopp fought his way over to Shinju using a mixture of explosive rounds and Lead Stars to get past Mr 5. “Y-Your arms…!” Usopp’s voice trembled as he stood by Shinju and realised that his eyes hadn’t been deceiving him.

The air smelt of gunpowder and burnt flesh, and Shinju’s cobalt blues were looking more blackish-brown; sticky and charred like her left side.

Karoo let out a shocked quack from beneath Usopp who was currently riding on his saddle.

“I-I’m fine,” Shinju hacked up another half-mouthful of blood. “They’ll grow back.”

“What do you mean they’ll grow back?!” Usopp demanded as he shot round after round at Mr 5.

“Just k-keep firing and I’ll cover you.” Shinju managed to roll herself back onto her feet and kept in a low position, ready to dodge any of Mr 5’s attacks that strayed too close. She could ignore the trembling of her unstable legs for a little longer.

‘But didn’t I come over here to help you?!’ Usopp wanted to shout, but the situation was so disorientating that he just had to go along with it. For now, they had to focus on surviving and figuring out a way to break Zoro, Nami, and Vivi out.

Usopp quickly shot at the approaching Mr 5. “Certain Kill, Gunpowder Star!” The agent caught the ammunition in his mouth, his stomach bloating with a muffled sound of an explosion went off inside of him. “Dammit!”

The two of them worked in uncanny tandem. When Mr 5 moved to dodged Usopp’s attacks or counter, Shinju would trip him into the way of the attacks or send him stumbling. They were wearing him down. However, having lost the element of surprise, Mr 5 was able to keep himself better grounded and quickly adapted to having to steady himself constantly, readjusting to the mysterious pressures tangling around his legs.

A blur of yellow shot past them.

“Ms Valentine?!” Usopp exclaimed.

“She’s going for the Service Set!” Shinju turned her head back in worry to see why Luffy hadn’t been able to defeat her like he easily had back at Whisky Peak.

“Colours Trap: Soothing Green,” Ms Goldenweek announced calmly, sitting down to have tea at the picnic she had set out. Luffy’s body betrayed him and forced him to kneel down next to her.

He picked up a cup. “The tea… is… delicious!” Luffy said through gritted teeth, trying his hardest to resist the influence of the paint’s hypnosis.

“Wait!” Usopp suddenly realised something. “I’ll just melt them out of there before she reaches them! Certain Kill, Flame S-” Distracted, Usopp was hit by Mr 5’s Breeze Breath Bomb directly.

“Usopp!” Shinju shouted, his smoking body flying past her. He was bleeding from his head, nose and other injuries.

“C-certain Kill, F-Flame Star!” Usopp said again, pushing past the pain to shoot at Mr 5 who easily dodged. The attack went past him and set the immobile Luffy ablaze.

“What a moron,” Mr 5 taunted the sniper.

Ms Valentine jumped up into the air with her reduced weight, floating above her trapped targets. “Kyahahahaha! Prepare to be crushed!” Before she could start falling, an elongated shin slammed into her midsection and sent her flying. “Kyaaa!”

“Gum-Gum Whip!” Luffy shouted, kicking her as far away as possible from his friends. “Ow, that really stings!” Luffy patted down the rest of the flames that were still burning on his shorts. The Soothing Green paint had been burn right off along with this shirt.

Once Luffy reeled his leg back in, he took off after the escaping Ms Goldenweek with Karoo. She had dragged the unconscious Mr 3 onto the back of a dinosaur under the influence of Yellow-Green of Friendship, hypnotising it into assisting their escape. Luffy wasn’t going to let them go so easily after what they’d done to his friends.

Meanwhile, Usopp got himself back on his feet. “One more! Certain Kill, Gun Powder Star!”

“Idiot!” Mr 5 snapped up the ammunition in his jaws. “How many times do I have to show you that using gunpowder is useless against a human-bomb?!”

“Gotcha,” Usopp smirked. “Sorry, but I just told a little lie. That wasn’t gunpowder… It was my special Tabasco Star!”

While Usopp laughed at Mr 5’s pained screams from his burning mouth, Shinju kept her eyes trained on him despite her own satisfaction. Having collapsed to the ground, the moment Mr 5 stood back up to rush at Usopp, Shinju had him falling back into the dirt.

“[Trip]!” Shinju smiled tiredly along with Usopp’s laughter. One last Lead Star straight to the temple, and Mr 5 was unconscious. They’d somehow survived and won, and it was an energetic rush of a feeling that Shinju couldn’t describe _._

Usopp started to head for the Service Set. “Now, let’s quickly free the others in case he wakes up!”

Shinju took a step forward, but her exhaustion was catching up to her. Falling, she had no hands to stabilise herself and barely manage to avoid landing on her open wounds.

“Crap! How the hell did I forget about your arms?!” Usopp quickly rushed back over. With careful assistance, he slowly helped Shinju back to her feet.

“Heh… it’s okay,” Shinju laughed tiredly. Usopp took Shinju’s right arm over his shoulders and started to walk them over to the Service Set. “We were kinda busy… trying not… to die.”

Shinju faltered in her steps and her eyes drooped against her will. She felt tired from the fighting, drained form using so many skills, sore because of her paused wounds left unhealed, and just felt… surprisingly alright.

She fell asleep on the way.

“Oi oi oi! I’m gonna drop you!” Usopp screeched.

•❖❖❖•

Slowly stirring awake, Shinju just wanted to go back to sleep because that's how most people feel as soon as they start gaining awareness. There as something soft under her head, her right arm wasn’t feeling sore from training with Tashigi, Smoker wasn’t kicking her in the leg to wake her up – but the dust and dirt griding against her skin in her clothes didn’t feel as dry as it should.

There was a chatter of voices – not Tashigi and Smoker’s, they didn’t ‘chatter’ with each other – but it didn’t sound like the Loguetown Marine base members were training nearby.

Her left side _stung_ each time the wind blew lightly over it like it was an open wound.

Shinju opened her eyes up to the sight of a blue sky and Luffy leaning far too close over her. There was a much too serious expression on his usually grinning face. He pulled back and kept staring.

“Jeeze,” Nami sighed in annoyance, but there was a badly hidden relief to her relaxing shoulders and expression. “Way to make us worry!”

Shinju moved to get up and was rewarded with a smack to the top of her head with the hilt of a sword. “Ah!” Shinju turned her head to look at him, and at the same time realised that she was laying on her bundled up cloak. Then she noticed Zoro’s bloodied legs bound tightly in what probably _used to be_ white bandages. “Zoro! What happened to your legs?!”

“Dumbass, what happened to your arms?!” Zoro was holding up the hilt of Yubarashi threateningly again. “Why aren’t you using the same crazy magic you used on your legs?! Huh?!”

‘[Non-Locational Damage’s] body mass regrowth must be paused because of an obstruction,’ Shinju realised. Raising her ‘wrist’ to her face, she saw the wounds remained open, but they didn’t bleed either. Paused was indeed the perfect way to describe it. ‘Oh, there’s bits of melted skin.' She cringed. ‘Am I gonna have to rip all of that off?’ Just the thought was making her insides churn in apprehension.

“I can’t… I'll have to-” and with those words, Shinju immediately found herself being lifted from the ground by the front of her shirt by Luffy. He looked _pissed_.

“You stupid head!” he shouted, slamming his skull into hers and making her see stars.

“Luffy?!” Vivi shot to her feet.

“Oi, what the hell are you doing?!” Sanji looked ready to intervein but stopped with the hand Nami placed on his arm.

“Why did you have to lose your arms?!” Luffy continued shouting. Shinju blinked, taking a moment to understand what was going on as her vision refocused. “Bird, Usopp, and I could have saved you guys without you doing this to yourself! How are you gonna continue your adventure with us and find your dream?!”

The bottle burst.

Shinju bristled in anger and retaliated with her own headbutt that sent Luffy’s neck stretching backwards. “Then I guess you don’t need some useless, armless person in your crew!”

Luffy let go and dodged a kick to his stomach. “No way! You’re our wizard!”

“I’m a _mage,_ you moron!” Shinju continued her assault, chasing after Luffy with her legs swinging.

“We can get you robot arms or something! Or maybe there’s a super doctor that can give you mystery arms!” Luffy punched Shinju in the face. “Idiot! So you have to come with us so we can get your arms fixed!”

“You've answered your own question, stupid!” Shinju tripped Luffy hard into the ground. “And I’m just as useless with arms!”

Luffy hooked his foot around Shinju’s and sent her into the dirt next to him. “No, you’re not!” They both rolled back to their feet. “You took down wax-guy all by yourself!”

“That was all…” Her elbow nailed Luffy in the face. “luck!”

“Then just get stronger so it won’t be!” He aimed another punch to her face which was narrowly dodged. “You even saved my hat from being splashed by paint!” Luffy added. “And you gave me mea-”

“It’s just a hat!” She countered another one of his strikes.

“It’s my treasure!”

Shinju’s next attempt to trip him only had him stumbling. “I can’t just become a pirate!”

“Why not?!” Luffy landed another punch in Shinju’s face while she rammed a knee into his stomach.

The two jumped back from one another panting more from their shouting match than their exchange of blows.

“Being a pirate is fun!” Luffy argued. “We get to go on adventures! We get too meet cool people and see really awesome things!” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And we’re already comrades, so that’s that!”

He was staring straight at _her_ and was expecting nothing more or less to get on their ship and sail with them. It was a weird feeling.

Shinju leaned her head down low, confusing the others and worrying some that she was doubling over in pain. She bit into her forearm and jerked her elbow out. “[Autotomy],” she grumbled from between her teeth, sounding akin to Zoro with his sword in his mouth. Her arm slipped off from her elbow with a wet ‘shlick’.

“Eeehh!” Luffy shouted in surprise and worry. “Shin?!” He panicked for a moment that he headbutted her too hard.

He suddenly stopped making noise and instead watched in awed fascination as Shinju’s arm quickly re-grew. The bones led the charge forward with tendons, veins, muscles, fat, and skin close behind. As soon as her arm was reformed, she grabbed the forearm in her jaws with her new hand. She aggressively flung it at Luffy’s head. At least, it was in the general direction of it.

“Stupid, idiot!” Shinju snapped at him, but she was losing the bite to her voice.

Luffy was all back to sunshine and smiles. “Hey! You _can_ grow your arms back!” He placed his hands on his hips with a laugh. “Shishishi! Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Because someone-” She threw a rock at him next. “-interrupted me!” The rock missed and skidded an unexpectedly long distance across the clearing.

Luffy just laughed.

Shinju took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair. ‘I need to find a way back home on the Grand Line and there’s really no better option for me right now.’ She didn’t glance in the direction of the other Straw Hats. She could already see the knowing smirks and mischievous smiles; they’d seen this coming from the beginning. ‘And maybe my only option is annoyingly appealing...’

Placing her only hand on her hip, Shinju breathed out a tired sigh and let her head loll forwards. “Looks like I’m a pirate now. Just… share a little bit of your luck with me?”

“Shishishi! No problem!” Luffy agreed, regardless of his capacity to actually do so.

‘Smoker and Tashigi are actually gonna _kill_ me.’

•❖❖❖•

Smoker scowled. On top of chasing down the Straw Hat Pirates, now they had a secret criminal organisation to look into. It was irritating how their Black Transponder Snail hadn’t been able to pick up more of the conversation – but it was enough to give them a solid direction to sail.

Tashigi held the sword she had been examining close to her. “I can’t stand to think Shinju’s on a pirate ship all by herself – and with _Roronoa_ no less!”

Smoker’s teeth dug into his cigars. Straw Hat and his crews had been the only pirates to escape him at Loguetown, and to add insult to injury, he'd snatched his dumbass-in-training too.

There was no plausible reason that they could think of for her kidnapping. Right now, the only possibilities they had come up with was that it was a whim of the idiot Straw Hat captain, Straw Hat and Shinju knew each other… or the much less favourable option that Shinju had been hiding something from them that had made her apparent pirate material.

If it was the latter, then they’d be having a serious ‘talk’ about keeping important, self-endangering information from superior officers. Well, almost her superiors at least.

“You… You don’t think she’ll join them, do you, Master Chief Tashigi?” a lower-ranked Marine asked. If Straw Hat Luffy had even managed to get a famous _pirate hunter_ to join him, he worried what it meant about the East Blue pirate captain’s recruiting skills… or methods.

“Shinju would never!” Tashigi immediately answered. “The only way that would happen would be if they forced her too. We’ll get her back as soon as we intercept the Straw Hats in Alabasta!”

Smoker let out a long, smoke-filled breath. “Tashigi! Has HQ processed the damn posters and the changes yet?”

Tashigi jumped and pushed her glasses up. “I-I’m not sure Sir! But it shouldn’t take too much longer.”

•❖❖❖•

After saying farewell to the two giants, they began to trek back to the ship and continue their journey with the Eternal Pose that Sanji had picked up from the Unluckies.

“Mawahahaha! The Great Usopp and his magician sidekick saved the day!”

“I am a _mage._ ”

‘A pirate mage,’ Shinju added in her head, still trying to get accustomed to the idea.

“I didn’t think you two had it in you,” Nami grinned teasingly. “But in all seriousness, we would have been in some serious trouble if you guys hadn’t taken out Mr 3, Mr 5, and broken Luffy out of the hypnosis.”

“Hm… Hey, Shin, do you poop?”

“Ah, I-”

“DON’T ANSWER HIM!!!”

•❖❖❖❖•

**User No. 44 | The Cobalt Mage  
Name: Mochizuki Shinju  
Skills:  
[Autotomy]  
[Fake Noise]  
[Inspection]  
[Inventory]  
[Rain Shield]  
[Stone Skipping]  
[Trip]  
Passives:  
[Biological Difference]  
[Game-Game Fruit]  
[Non-Locational Damage]  
[Unnatural Existence]**

•❖❖❖❖•


	6. Illness and Injury

“Look! My lizard is _clearly_ bigger!” Sanji growled at his green-haired crewmate.

Zoro stood across from him on his own catch. “Are your eyes just for show or something? The bigger animal is my rhi - Triceratops!”

“Ha, where’d you learn that big word, sword idiot?” The chef leaned forward, looking ready to but heads.

“Who cares, they both look pretty tasty to me.” Luffy laughed when his first-mate and chef turned on him with harsh glares.

“You stay out of this!!!”

Shinju was currently sitting on the open deck, organising the strange fruits, vegetable-like things, and weird plants she had collected on Little Garden. She placed them in different baskets that Sanji had brought out from the kitchen for him to look at later.

“That magic bag sure is handy,” Vivi commented as she kneeled down beside Shinju and began to assist her.

“It’s not really the bag.” Shinju smiled and took out a long plant from her pocket, making Vivi blink in surprise. “It’s anything considered a container that I’m touching.”

“To think there was such a versatile Devil Fruit!” Vivi’s earnest amazement left Shinju feeling bashful. She poorly tried to hide it by keeping a straight face, but it was obvious she was pleased even if she didn’t believe it.

They finished quickly with Vivi’s two hands added to Shinju’s one working together, and Sanji swooped by to put them away.

“Thanks, Shin!” Sanji gave her a salute with his free hand as he nimbly walked backwards toward the kitchen. “Now I just need to get those dumbasses to eat something besides meat and alcohol!” he grumbled quietly to himself as he disappeared back into the ship.

Vivi got back on her feet, and Shinju couldn’t help but notice how elegantly she stood with perfect poise. Even in the casual hoodie, that she was borrowing from Nami, she maintained a regal air that wasn’t stifling or arrogant.

‘I wonder if I could move like that if I tried hard enough.’ Shinju started losing herself in her thoughts. ‘Lol, not with my noodle legs. Speaking of legs, I need to get my legs out of my boots that I’ve shoved in [Inventory] because I am now emotionally attached to them-’

“Shinju?” Vivi had a hand reached out for her to help her up this entire time the girl had been staring off into nowhere. The princess couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at the owlish look on Shinju’s face as she snapped back into the present.

“A-Ah! Sorry, Vivi! Thanks.” Shinju gratefully took her hand and let her help her to her feet. After Vivi told her not to worry about it, Shinju let her gaze turn to the rest of the crew.

The ship had begun to sail down the river, heading for the exit on the western side of the island that the giants had kindly informed them about. It would be a little while until they set out on the open ocean; that gave Shinju some time.

“Sooo, I didn’t actually eat the Mage-Mage Fruit,” Shinju tried to casually throw out.

“You didn’t?” Sanji’s surprised voice carried from the lounge room’s open door where he was steering the ship from, as the Going Merry had no steering wheel but a steering pole instead.

“You lied!” Usopp pointed at her accusingly and was assaulted by Nami for it.

“Like you can talk!” Nami snapped at him before turning back to Shinju and crossing her arms over her chest. “So, what’s the secrecy for?” Nami was attempting to be intimidating, but it was hard to maintain when the one you were trying to intimidate was a meek civilian-like girl with one arm.

“Ah – well – it’s nothing bad! I swear!” Shinju quickly assured them while placatingly raising her open palm. “I wasn’t even sure if I needed to be discreet about it. It was just a little precaution – no offence to you guys!”

“None taken.” Nami eased up and gave Shinju a reassuring pat her to good shoulder.

‘As if this kid could have any malicious intent.’ Nami stepped back with a small smirk that was more of a smile. ‘Well, she did kind of go nuts on that Mr 5 weirdo, but that was self-preservation, adrenaline, and luck at their finest.’

“So, what _is_ your Devil Fruit then?” Nami prompted her back into speaking.

“Wait, so does that mean you’re not really a mage?! You can’t shoot laser beams or fireballs?!” Luffy invaded Shinju’s personal bubble and was promptly punched back out by Nami for interrupting.

“You can shoot fireballs and laser beams?!” Usopp joined in on Luffy’s shouting.

Shinju just stood there awkwardly for a few moments while Nami kicked Usopp over to where Luffy had landed. The navigator shot her an ‘okay’ sign with her hand and kind smile when she was done as if she hadn’t just assaulted her captain and crewmate.

Zoro was just watching from the side, leaning against the railing with a bored stance, betrayed by the curious gleam in his eyes.

“Yeah… I can’t shoot laser beams or fireballs…” Shinju started off, watching as Usopp and Luffy deflated. “The fruit I ate is actually called the Game-Game Fruit, and I get my magic-like abilities from having the mage class.”

There was a moment of silence and a dinosaur call in the distance. “Bwaaaa!”

‘Yep, okay, that explanation went right over everyone’s head’s if their blank expressions are anything to go by.’ Shinju rubbed the back of her neck, trying to think.

“The Game-Game Fruit?” Vivi pressed a knuckle to her chin, thinking hard, and Shinju naively let herself get hopeful. “I believe I may have heard of it, but I seemed to have forgotten.”

Luffy grinned at the name. “If it’s about games, then it must let you do fun stuff, right?”

“…Have any of you played a video game before?”

“Video game?” Zoro raised a brow at the term, and Shinju pursed her lips together as she thought of a way to explain it. If video games existed somewhere in this world, then it obviously hadn’t been on their islands.

Shinju cocked her head to the side. “Do you guys know what role-playing games are?” She missed the way Sanji’s nostrils flared as his mind obviously went _far_ elsewhere – probably his happy place, like an imaginary Nami island.

“Like when kids play pirates and Marines, right?” Nami suggested.

“Yes!” Shinju could work with this. “The Game-Game Fruit is a bit weird compared to other Devil Fruits because every user’s abilities are unique. This is because like kids playing a game, everyone has a different role – or class – that defines part of what they can do. If you have a mage class, then you can get magic-like skills. If you have a knight class, you might get defensive skills that are good for protecting others.”

Zoro, surprisingly, spoke up. “So, if you have the swordsman role, you’d pick up sword techniques?”

“Exactly.” Shinju was glad that Zoro seemed to understand it perfectly. “Though, I think the personality and life experiences of the user also affect their affinity for picking up skills. I don’t have any direct combat abilities, and that’s probably because I don’t have any combat experience in my background.” She sheepishly avoided any eye contact with an embarrassed smile.

“The reason why I can grow my body parts back is because of my passive [Non-Locational Damage]. I still get hurt, but it just doesn’t show physically.” Everyone pointedly looked towards Shinju’s missing arm. “Usually. I know how to fix this.”

Vivi placed a hand on her chest. “That’s a relief.”

“So, how does this thing work?” Sanji leaned the steering pole to the left to manoeuvre them around another bend in the river.

Shinju tapped her chin. “[Non-Locational Damage] means where you hit me doesn’t matter. Shooting me in the head and shooting me in the foot would do the same amount of damage. That also means attacking my spine and organs can’t kill me because it’s the same as hitting my leg or arm. So instead of my health degrading through a build-up of wounds, I keep track of my health as a percentage. As long as it’s above zero, then I’m alive, and my body will instantly repair itself.”

“What per cent are you on now?” Nami asked.

“…Thirty-one per cent.” Before anyone could comment/realise how she was essentially more than _half dead,_ she swiftly continued. “Eating and drinking works the same way as my health. As long as my hunger and hydration are above zero, then I don’t need to eat or drink – but when it does hit zero, I’ll start slowly losing health. Nutrition is also irrelevant.”

“So that’s how you’ve been surviving eating those shitty dried meats I’ve caught you eating!” Sanji, who Shinju had _definitely_ not forgotten about, shouted.

“Y-Yeah… hahaha!”” Shinju forced a laugh and turned away from the scary look on the chef’s face.

“I don’t get it at all, but don’t die!” Luffy demanded, an unusually serious look on his face. He may not have understood much, and he wasn’t good at percentages – or math in general – but he felt the tension in his friends rise when Shinju had told them how low her health was.

“Sure thing, captain.” Shinju couldn’t really promise it, but she didn’t feel any other type of response was appropriate to that level of concern.

Usopp crossed his arms over his chest, a curious look on his face. “Why did you decide to tell us all this now?”

“Since we’ll be working together from now on, it’s best if you understand what my abilities are so they don’t cause undue concern.” Shinju had a professional, business-like smile on her face. “I look forward to sailing with you all!”

Usopp dramatically pointed at Shinju. “This is a pirate crew, not a company!”

•❖❖❖•

After sailing into the mouth of an island sized Sea King and being blown out the other side by what should have been physically impossible swordsmanship, Shinju was ready to collapse again. Instead, she sat down and leaned against the railing of the ship as Nami had against the mast. Her left side stung a little from the lingering sea spray that had dusted over it in their landing, but it faded soon enough.

‘I can’t tell if this crew is lucky from how they keep popping miracles like they’re Tic Tacs or unlucky with how many they need.’ Shinju smiled a bit at the comparison before frowning. ‘Now I want Tic Tacs. Dang it.’

She drummed her bloody fingers on the wooden planks under her right hand.

Shinju couldn’t help the shiver that ran down her spine, her shoulder twisting back and forth uncomfortably as it passed through her. There had been too many close calls in one day, and the carefree nature of the crew could only distract her for so long. If those two giants hadn’t been on the island and the crew hadn’t managed to befriend them, then there was a good chance the Island Eater would have been their end.

It had been a little reminder of just what she’d signed up for, and things were only going to get exponentially more dangerous from here on out.

Her crusted fingers rubbed at the back of her neck with a little more pressure than usual, bits of dried blood under her nails grinding against her skin like sand.

Vivi’s panicked cry captured her attention. “Everyone! It’s an emergency!” Shinju saw Nami’s prone form on the floor, her breath hitching at the sight. “Nami’s fallen down with an extremely high fever!”

•❖❖❖•

Shinju was eerily still in the cold breeze that was starting to pick up slightly. In her hand was Nami’s log pose. The navigator had been rushed back to their room to rest after she had collapsed, and Shinju could still feel the uncomfortable twisting in her gut when she heard their shouts.

It didn’t sound good.

‘Nami’s not going to die from a fever, is she?’ Shinju’s right hand clenched around the log pose a little harder, and she quickly eased up once she realised what she was doing. Her thumb slid over the bubble of glass covering the top of the pin and her upright posture began drooping. ‘This sucks…’

A few minutes later, Nami emerged from the women’s quarters looking no better than before. The navigator pressed a hand to her aching head while groaning, and Shinju briskly walked over to her. Beads of sweat trailed down her flushed face with every drop adding to Shinju’s building concern.

“Nami, should you really be up?” Regardless, Shinju passed the log pose back to Nami when her hand weakly extended for it.

“I’m fine… Shinju.” Nami gave her unconvincing smile and looked out at the ocean, her lips twisting back down into a grimace. “The atmosphere’s… changed…”

Once Nami had finished altering their course, the crew kept trying to convince her to go back to resting. She was obviously in no condition to be walking around despite her reassurances that she was fine. Not even their gullible captain believed her.

When Vivi finally stepped out of the women’s quarters, Shinju’s eyes flicked up to her curiously. The princess’s shoulders were tense and her hands that held the railing of the upper deck were ridged in their tight grasp.

“I have a request to ask all of you,” Vivi started. “I know that it’s not my place to make such demands since you’ve already let me on this boat and helped me so much, but with the emerging crisis in my country, I want to go there as soon as possible. Not even a single moment can be spared anymore!” There was a slight pause, and Shinju couldn’t help her building trepidation. “That’s why I ask for this ship to head for Alabasta at the fastest speed!”

Shinju’s preconceptions of Vivi’s character started clashing with possibly realistic actions of a princess loyal to her nation and expected ones of a _friend_. ‘But Nami…’

Nami broke the silence that settled over the ship. “Of course! Just like we promised!”

But Vivi wasn’t finished yet. “Thus, we need to find an island with a doctor immediately. We have to see to it that Nami gets better as fast as possible, and then head for Alabasta! That’ll be the only way this ship can sail at the fastest speed, right?!”

The black-haired girl felt a tinge of guilt for doubting Vivi, even if the start of her speech had been misleading. ‘Ah… that’s a relief.’

“You bet!” Luffy grinned. “Can’t get any faster than that!”

“You sure? Aren’t you worried about the lives of a million Alabastans, being a princess and all?” Usopp asked.

“Exactly! That’s why we _need_ to get Nami to a doctor as quickly as possible,” Vivi stressed.

“Well said, Vivi!” Sanji grinned. “I’ve fallen for you all over again!”

The corner of Zoro’s lips quirked up. “I like your guts.”

Shinju just smiled at the exchange, not having any words to contribute that hadn’t already been said. ‘To say anything feels almost… intrusive of this moment they’re having.’ Her eyes went out to the ocean. She stiffened, missing the rest of the conversation over the sound of rapidly growing winds and waves.

“AAAAH! WHAT IS THAAAAT?!” Luffy yelled, the ratio of fear to awe in his voice unclear as usual to Shinju.

A huge cyclone towered in the distance, bridging the ocean and blackened sky with a column of raw, devastating power. The sky howled, winds whipped their hair around their faces, and the ocean began to toss their ship around as the waves grew rougher.

Usopp shrieked, “It’s – it’s a cyclone!”

Nami began to fall as her weak legs buckled beneath her when another wave rocked the ship. Shinju immediately reached out an arm towards her in an attempt to catch her. Utterly failing, she stumbled with Nami and Vivi ending up catching them both.

“Ah! Nami, hang in there!” Vivi called to the unconscious navigator, holding her up by slinging one of Nami’s arms over her shoulder.

“Sorry!” Shinju hastily moved out of the way with unbalanced steps. She could find a corner to brood in embarrassment later.

“It’s huuuuge!” Luffy stared at it with wide eyes.

“Wait a minute, that direction is…” Vivi gaped at her realisation – one that everyone else in the crew quickly came to.

“That’s exactly where we were headed until just a moment ago!” Sanji said for her, the princess too lost in her awe of Nami’s predictive abilities.

“If we had sailed straight, we’d have crashed right into it by now!”

“Talk about a close call!”

‘Isn’t Grand Line weather meant to be unpredictable?!’ Shinju’s head spun back toward Nami who panted weakly, every breath an effort in her ill state. ‘Nami mentioned something about the _atmosphere changing_. Can she actually feel atmospheric changes? Is that even possible?!’ The Straw Hat crew had brushed past death once again, and Shinju wondered how many times Nami had steered them away from a watery grave.

“Onwards!” Luffy yelled from his position wrapped around the main mast of the ship with his rubber limbs. “Let’s go find a doctor!”

“Aye!”

•❖❖❖•

“Usopp, Usopp I’m leaking! I’m leaking!”

“Can’t you just turn it off?!”

“Touching it is the on button!”

“Aaaah! It’s on my _haaands_!”

The long-nosed sniper was finally able to pull away once he had properly adjusted the jacket around her wound. A day had passed, and their course had sailed them into colder waters. Nipping winds flushed their unprotected skin and turned their breaths hazy, prompting the crew to wear warming clothing. This didn’t include Luffy who seemed unaffected.

Shinju’s cloak was in tatters – left inside the corner of her [Inventory] for now – and wouldn’t have been much use to her in these frigid temperatures regardless. Usopp had offered to let her use one of his greyish-green ones. However, pressure on her wound had the blood start flowing again which made it impossible to cover up. Sacrificing the jacket without hesitation, he had cut off one of the sleeves and a bit extra so the jacket wouldn’t brush against it. Then, with surprising skill, he’d sown up the raw edges.

Putting it on had ended up with a little bit of blood around the rim of the jacket, but it was negligible in face of the warmth that Shinju got out of it. To stop her wound from freezing, a curved flap made with the sleeve fabric and some wire was secured over the hole with safety pins, acting as a sort of lid. The stiff curvature of the flap stopped it from touching her wound and the material kept the heat from escaping.

“Thanks a bunch, Usopp!” Shinju smiled and wiggled around her left side a bit, checking that the edges wouldn’t touch it. Cringing when she pulled at her injury, she abruptly stopped her movements. It seemed it would be fine as long as she didn’t twist around too much.

Usopp was almost done thoroughly washing his hands in the sink. “Are you sure you’re not going to faint from blood loss?!”

“Blood loss itself doesn’t directly decrease my health, and I don’t think I’m capable of fainting unless the ocean or Seastone is involved.”

‘And maybe _drugs_ but I don’t have any on me to experiment with…’ Shinju thought hard for a moment. ‘I guess procuring a lot of drugs is on my to-do list now. For safety reasons.’

Once Usopp was done cleaning his hands they stepped out onto the deck.

He crossed his arms over his chest with an overly thoughtful expression on his face. “You’ve got such a weird Devil Fruit.”

“Yeah… it’s pretty weird…”

The two of them stood there awkwardly, neither of them sure what to do with themselves as snow began to drift lazily down from the sky. Sure, they had shared the occasional conversation over Usopp’s projects and played a couple games of semi-awkward tag together – but there had always been a sort of formal distance between Shinju and the rest of the crew. She hadn’t even been with them by choice.

Now Shinju was officially their comrade, but she was still practically a stranger to them.

“Sooo, thanks again for the smoke bombs, they were a lifesaver!” Shinju shot him an appreciative smile that wasn’t quite a grin.

‘Literally. I would have died without them.’ Shinju really needed to find a way to thank Usopp for all his help.

He immediately perked up. “Right, right?! Mawhahah, I told you that if you used those the Great Usopp would come to save the day! I’ll give you some more after I whip up another batch!”

“Thanks, Usopp! If you need any help, just let me know, okay?”

“D-Don’t worry about a thing!” Usopp took a dramatic pose. “The Great Usopp can create his super awesome, mega-powerful smoke bombs with just his pinkie finger! Hey, did I ever tell you about that time that I…” He went on animatedly telling another one of his tall tales.

Shinju had caught the way Usopp’s eyes flicked towards her hidden injury. It was a bit disheartening, but it was understandable. ‘I’d be pretty uncomfortable having a technically seventy per cent dead person with a blown off arm help me out too.’

“Shin!” Luffy popped up behind her, causing both Shinju and Usopp to let out shrieks of surprise.

Awkwardly spinning on her heel to the sound of Luffy’s voice, she stumbled backwards, the back of her head hitting the mast with a ‘thunk’. “A-a-ah…”

“Whoops, sorry!”

“It’s fine, Luffy,” Shinju quickly forgave his excitable nature. “Did you need something?”

A large grin stretched across Luffy’s face when he remembered what he wanted to ask, but Zoro’s voice cut through the conversation before it could continue. “Uhhhh, guys… do you think a person could stand on top of the ocean?” he called down to them from his vantage point in the bird’s nest.

Usopp raised a brow at the swordsman on watch, wondering if his lying had rubbed off on him. “The heck are you asking, Zoro?”

“Then how do you explain _that_?”

Everyone’s eyes turned toward the water, quickly locating the growing spec of green on the horizon. Once they sailed closer, they could clearly see the strangely dressed man on the water. His light and dark green checkered shirt had two floppy ear-like points on the hood, and a bow and full quiver rested on the back of his white cloak.

“Quite cold today, isn’t it?” His casual greeting threw them for a loop.

“Yeah, it _is_ pretty cold today,” Luffy agreed and turned towards Usopp.

Usopp found himself joining the short-lived conversation as well. “Y-Yeah, for real. It’s freezing today…”

The Straw Hat members on deck continued to silently stare at the weird stranger, unsure of what to do. Abruptly, the surface of the water broke as a huge metal dome burst from the ocean, carrying the strange man upon a revealed crow’s nest.

“What’s that?! A water-melon?!” Luffy tightly held onto his hat as the ship was sent rocking violently from the displaced water.

Shinju went flying into the mast for the second time today, but at least when her stomach caught it and knocked the wind out her, it stopped her from falling overboard. “Gah!”

The metal dome that had risen out of the water broke up into long segments that unfurled, revealing a large set of sails. With a loud clanking of gears, a figurehead with a crown wearing hippopotamus protruded ungracefully from the front. It was a hulking submersible ship that towered over their small caravel.

The Going Merry was immediately swarmed with green-glad soldiers, all bearing arms; loaded and aimed in their direction. Shinju prepared to start attacking when the round, metal-plated captain of the attacking vessel started eating part of the Going Merry and bullets began to fly.

Then, she unexpectedly found herself pulled back into the ship.

“Take care of Nami!” Vivi firmly grasped her shoulder before shutting the door, her footsteps cloaked in the sound of gunfire and shouts.

“Ah…” Shinju was left stunned for a moment at the sudden change of scenery and the flush of warm air from inside.

Karoo quaked at her, breaking her from her daze. Shinju swiftly went to Nami’s side, the ill woman’s eyes blearily blinking open.

“W-What’s… going on?” she rasped.

“It’s nothing to worry about, Nami.” Shinju gave her a reassuring smile and readjusted Nami’s blanket over her properly. “They’ve got everything covered.”

•❖❖❖•

The situation outside was swiftly taken care of, though the Going Merry had sustained some damage from the man named ‘Wapol’ _eating_ parts of it. While Zoro was on watch and Usopp had stared repairs, Sanji, Vivi, and Luffy joined Shinju and Karoo to check on Nami’s condition.

Perspiration still covered Nami’s visible skin and matted down her hair. Even while resting, her brows were pulled down in an expression of discomfort and each breath that left her slightly parted lips was laboured. Her temperature hadn’t stopped rising either.

“You think if we dumped a bucket of water on her, her fever might go down?” Luffy suggested.

“Are you retarded?!” Sanji and Vivi scolded him together, a paralleled kick and punch sending him flying for the stupid idea.

A frame was knocked from the wall by Luffy’s collision and the corner plunged into his squishy face. Shinju cringe in sympathy despite knowing the blunt impact wouldn’t actually harm him. Their energetic captain – though, recently he had been a _bit_ more subdued – sprung back to his feet with a new vigour, his eyes training on Shinju.

“Shin! Shin!” He bounded up to her with a hopeful look in his eyes. He could finally ask his question. “You can grow back your arms and stuff, so can you use that spell on Nami to heal her?!”

This time Shinju’s cringe was internal, her chest seeming to shrink in on itself in discomfort like her throat was around her windpipe. There was a moment of silence that lasted a few seconds too long. “Sorry, Luffy, it only works on me.”

“Awe maaan,” Luffy’s shoulders slumped. “That’s okay, that just means we still have to find a doctor!”

Shinju was sure that she had kept her voice even and her calm expression undisturbed, but Sanji seemed to feel her discomfort regardless. “Idiot!” The chef sent Luffy flying again with another kick. “Don’t ask stupid questions! She would have done it before if she could!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Shinju frantically waved her hand in front of her. “He was just curious.”

“Alright then.” Sanji’s uncovered eye flicked towards the window and noted the almost completely diminished light. “Damn it, the sun’s already going down for the day.”

“Right, I guess we better drop anchor for the night then.” Vivi turned to Nami with a soft expression. “Without Nami’s navigational sense, sailing in the night is too dangerous…”

•❖❖❖•

Shinju finished up her note writing and planning she had been doing in the lounge room, now at the door of the women’s quarters where Nami was resting inside. She stumbled a bit in the dark but made it to her destination without making too much noise.

Quietly opening the door, Shinju didn’t fully open it; quite a few more people were occupying the room than she was expecting. Vivi was slumped against Nami’s bed; Zoro was snoring, laid against Karoo; Luffy was sprawled across the floor with his mouth hung open and drool leaking out the side; and Usopp was propped against the wall with a blanket over him.

Everyone was here for Nami, and the only one missing was Sanji who was dutifully keeping watch over the ship.

Shinju smiled at the sight and quietly closed the door, heading back to the lounge room. She sat down at the table and rested her head on her forearm. It would be safer to sleep this way with her injury anyway, and she had already accidentally done so the night before without having to face the repercussions of kinks in her neck the next morning.

As she stared into the darkness of the room for what felt like hours, her smile slowly faded. Time continued to tick by, and the more she tried to clear her head the more agitated she became. Shinju slowly stood up and quietly walk to the bathroom, careful to not trip. Opening and closing doors in her way as gently as possible, her harshly clenching hands betrayed her delicate movements.

After switching on the light, Shinju unzipped her jacket and hung it on the locked door handle of the bathroom and yanked off her clothes. Kneeling down, she hunched over herself inside the bath of the Going Merry, the rhythmic sway of the ship sending her rocking lightly side to side. She knew the swaying motions weren’t the cause of her nausea. Her shoulders were tense as a shiver ran down her spine from the cold air against her bare skin.

She didn’t want to get her clothes ruined any more than they already were.

“[Autotomy]!” A hand over the undamaged skin just above the wound, she dug her fingers in and tugged. “Hhhh!” A few drops of blood dribbled down her side from her squeezing, but it refused to budge. “Haha… _of course_ ,” Shinju almost hissed.

‘I don’t have enough leverage or control to cast off a small section like this so close to my torso.’ Her jaw clenched tightly, lips pursing into a thin line.

Shinju had hoped that she would be able to get it to pop off and regrow from a fresh cross-section as she had with her right – but that obviously wasn’t an option. The other optimal method would be to drug herself up with pain killers and cut away the obstructing skin and flesh. As Shinju had suspected, there were none on board.

The thought of peeling her shoulder like a blood-filled mango sent a violent shiver through her. She could barely look at it without feeling the bile start to rise in her throat, let alone sit down and cut and tear at it for who knows how long.

‘If I can slow down and turn off [Non-Locational Damage], then I should be able to force it to activate too, right?’ Shinju wasn’t sure if that was a reassuring assumption or not anymore. ‘It’ll be like ripping off a band-aid… Only, the band-aid is like duck-tape on an open wound and it’s being forced off from the inside – _I am not making this any easier for myself, am I?_ ’

Reaching for a cloth she left hanging on the side of the drained bathtub, she stared at it, the minutes ticking by before she finally placed it in her mouth.

‘Three… two… _one!!!’_

It burned searingly as the nerves were set alight. Flesh, bone, and vein were trying to force their way past the thin barrier, writhing under the damaged skin. Her skin bubbled and shifted, blood dripping onto her side as held fast obstructions began to tear. A sharp ringing erupted in her ears and she felt like chucking up bile.

“Mmmmph!” Shinju bit hard into the cloth she had placed in her mouth.

A sharp edge of a red-stained bone broke through and jutted out a mere centimetre, splattering the inner side of the tub with droplets of crimson.

She abruptly stopped with a few trails of sweat running down her pale face, similar to the lines of blood sluggishly rolling down the side of the bath. Spitting out the cloth into the bottom of the once pristine bathtub, she sucked in deep, ragged breaths until her left side stopped aching and her vision focused. Shinju leaned the side of her head against the cool rim of the tub.

The coppery scent building in the enclosed space was starting to make her head spin, or maybe it was from forcing her passive to speed up. She couldn’t bring herself to move just yet. She shifted her head a little further down to look at her wound, her face sticking to the tub’s smooth surface, squishing one of her tired eyes further closed with her cheek.

Small bits of flesh were hanging off of her arm, black charred patches crusted around the edge, deformed skin was melted over parts, and the raw muscles that were exposed to the open air were full of blood that had unnaturally ceased flowing. A bit of muscle had reformed, and a new, short blade of bone protruded out. Everything felt a little tighter now, but the achy pulses were fading with every beat of her heart.

She pulled her eyes away as her queasiness began to quickly build up again.

A deep inhale.

The otherworlder lashed out, slamming her elbow down hard into the bottom of the tub with a heavy thud of bone against porcelain. She immediately regretted it, hissing in pain. It was much harder than she would have ever dared without her passives. Covering her eyes with her hand, she let out a deep sigh.

‘I’m theoretically capable of doing it if I tried harder,’ she admitted. She twisted around, turning on the water. ‘but I… I can’t willingly bring myself to go through that much intense pain and mental exhaustion… Even if the pain would fade in seconds,’ She carefully kept her left side directly out of the spray of the water, cringing each time a stray droplet rolled over it. ‘and it would stop me from feeling like such dead weight…’

Finishing up in the bathroom, she stepped out into the cold air and headed for the back of the ship. There, the others wouldn’t hear her muttering to herself and she couldn’t distract whoever was in the crow’s nest since she was out of their sight.

She couldn’t catch a sick woman collapsing a mere two feet away from her, she was a liability in even a small fight that had to be worried about, and basic chores were kept from her out of honest concern. Beyond all that was what really bothered her – what _really_ had her skin itching like phantom worms running backwards through her veins and each of her ribs not knowing how to sit in her uncomfortable chest.

It was how it highlighted how vulnerable – how _civilian_ – she really was on a ship of extraordinary monsters and on a sea of vicious behemoths. She was a mage that couldn’t reliably attack, heal, or defend. All she had were trick skills, and those would only work against those that couldn’t just plough through them.

‘Time to train I guess. It’s not like I can do anything else.’

•❖❖❖❖•

**User No. 44 | The Cobalt Mage  
Name: Mochizuki Shinju  
Skills:  
[Autotomy]  
[Fake Noise]  
[Inspection]  
[Inventory]  
[Rain Shield]  
[Stone Skipping]  
[Trip]  
Passives:  
[Biological Difference]  
[Game-Game Fruit]  
[Non-Locational Damage]  
[Unnatural Existence]**

•❖❖❖❖•

**[New System Notification! | Author's Note]**

(・=・)ﾉ Hi, I have been gone for six weeks (╮°-°)╮. . . It was the end of the year/start of a new year so, you know... lots of thingis going on. Good thinigis, bad thingis, socks playing hide and seek in that one sink that causes the hoose to flood, annoying thinigis, moving hooses, family thingis.

Anyway! I'm back °˖✧ヽ(o=o☆)ノ✧˖°

Seriously tho - the actual writing of this chapter took way longer than it usually would have ( ˙▿˙ ) I'm still not happy with it, but I'll never publish it if I don't do it now!!! I hope you guys enjoyed it regardless and that my next chapter will be better!

Also! People have been asking if I have an update schedule. Nope, but I usually try to not go over a month at the latest.

Because this took so long to update, I've decided to have a Bonus Section that I'll place in a separate book for extra things like Special Chapters sometime soon!

I hope you had a Happy Merry New Christmas Year Day! ∑d(°=°d) 


	7. Snowfall

Shinju raised her hand to the sky, the tips flushed from the cold and tingling unpleasantly. “[Rain Shield],” she mouthed, the real sound itself coming from out over the waves behind the ship. Her eyes furrowed, and her lips pulled into a grimace as she pulled and stretched at it. It was like trying to stretch cloth, the material only giving so much to the stiff fibres that made it up; not meant to be flexible, but firm.

Pulling, stretching, pulling, stretching – pause so it didn’t tear – pulling, stretching.

Her arm trembled, dropping back down bonelessly with a swing. With it, so too came down the [Rain Shield].

Shinju leaned over the back of the ship, throwing up a mouthful of bile. Her head was pulsing with aches that had been gradually intensifying over the past couple of hours. It didn’t hurt so much as being struck over the head, but more akin to a sick, achy feeling of a cotton-filled skull.

Straightening with a sway, she stepped back from the railing and

“Haa… haa…” Shinju leaned over and placed her hand on her knee.

Deactivating [Fake Noise] she had activated in the background, the pressure in her head eased up some more. Feeling a bit of wetness building in her nostrils, she wiped it away with a small cloth muddied with dark maroon patches and brown splotches.

‘Okay, yep, my ideas aren’t too bright when I’m stressed out. As if anything was going to change overnight.’ She quietly scoffed at herself. ‘All those hours, and there’s still barely any improvement.’

The most productive thing that had come out of tonight hadn’t even been the training – it was finding out that she could separate her legs from her boots from inside her [Inventory], as they were counted as separate items. So, at least she was back in her own boots.

She ran a hand through her hair and shivered, finally noticing just how cold it had gotten. She pulled her hood over her head shoved her hand into her pocket before leaning against the back of the deckhouse, the splinters of wood catching on the fabric of her jacket.

‘Training is _hard_.’

•❖❖❖❖•

Once the sun had properly settled into the sky, the Straw Hats had finally come upon an island. Now, it was only a matter of finding anyone living there and getting help from their local doctor.

“Wow… Just what are those mountains?!” Sanji raised an impressed brow at the sight of the broad columns that towered high over the frost-covered mountains.

The ground not covered by the centrally positioned mountains – and almost volcanic looking columns – was flat and covered in tightly clustered together pine trees cloaked in snow. The island seemed to be a monochrome landscape of white and a few greys where the snow didn’t hold to the sheer sides of mountains; it excited their captain greatly.

“So much snow…” Luffy – currently seated on his favourite spot – Merry’s figurehead – clasped his hands in front of him as he took in the fluffy sight. “I’m so happy!”

“Aren’t you cold wearing only that?” Usopp’s own voice trembled from the shivers running through his body, a kind of cold he’d never gotten to experience back in the Gecko Islands seeping deep into his bones.

Vivi checked the temperature. “It’s minus ten degrees Celsius, cold enough for a bear to be hibernating.”

“Huh?” Luffy blinked at them dumbly, his mouth slightly opened and letting out a small, “Ah,” before it shut with chittering teeth. “Brrrrrr!!!”

“Could you _be_ any slower?!” Usopp and Sanji shouted at him, wondering how their idiot captain hadn’t noticed the cold until it had been pointed out to him.

While Luffy ran off to go grab his coat, the Going Merry sailed upstream and came across a glittering meltwater waterfall emptying into the ocean. Shinju took a moment to just appreciate the tranquil sound of rushing water.

‘Yeaaaah, something bad is probably about to happen,’ Shinju concluded after taking in the peaceful scenery.

“So, who’s going to go look for a doctor?” Zoro crossed his arms over his chest. “Actually… I guess we should start by seeing if there are any people here.”

Luffy immediately raised his hand up high, “I’ll go!”

Sanji was quick to join his captain. “Me too!”

“Yes, go forth, my comrades!” Usopp stood with his chin tilted up and his arms crossed over his chest as well.

Shinju’s expectations were met when the white snow on either side of the river became swarmed with armed men and women in winter gear. Rifles pointed to those on deck, their ship was forced to a stop. The agitated crowded seems to have twitchy trigger fingers, and a silent hum of fear and determination hung in the air around them. Shinju was surprised that they hadn’t been shot on sight with how high tensions were running.

“You will turn around immediately,” A tall, broad-shouldered man stepped to the front of the group, dressed in a thick, green tunic with armour-plated arms and a blade-edged spade almost as long as he was tall slung across his back. “and leave this island at once.” His deep baritone voice left no room for arguments, and Shinju could tell that many of the islanders could stand with such confidence because of this man they followed.

“Wait! We’ve come here for a doctor!” Luffy tried to reason.

“We have a sick person on board!” Vivi shouted.

“Those lies won’t work on us, pirate sum!” one amongst the armed crowd shouted, and others followed.

“This is _our_ country, and we won’t let no stinking pirates run amok on it!”

“Now pull up your anchor and beat it or we’ll _make_ you leave!”

Shinju jumped back with a sharp jerk of her muscles when one of the islanders opened fire at Sanji’s feet, the shot only missing because he had managed to doge. As tensions rapidly escalated, Shinju quickly checked her health.

**[Health: 91%]**

‘I can take a few bullets…’ Her eyes flickered over the villagers and landed on a trembling man with blond hair, rough hands shaking with an index finger that danced around the trigger.

She could have moved in front of the shot; pushed Vivi out of the way, yet she found herself doing little more than flinching when more shots were fired. One more than just grazing Vivi’s arm from the amount of blood that steadily dripped from it. Only able to shake off her locked joints after the damage had been done.

“Vivi!” Luffy shouted before turning to the elevated bank with a fierce glare. “How **_dare_** you!”

Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji similarly took battle stances.

If Vivi hadn’t jumped back up from the ground and hooked her arm around Luffy’s waist, he would have already been upon them. “No, wait! This isn’t a problem you can solve by fighting! You don’t have to worry about me – the bullet only grazed my arm!” The princess dropped to her knees and bowed her head low to the floor. “I beg of you! We promise not to set foot in your country, so could you please just call over a doctor?! Our friend is gravely ill and in much pain! Please help her!”

“Sorry! I was wrong!” Luffy’s expression was as serious as it was sincere as he dropped to the ground next to Vivi. “We only need a doctor. Please save our friend!”

Shinju felt her chest tighten as she watched a woman she respected greatly, and her captain, beg for medical assistance with their heads to the floor. The mage schooled her bubbling ire in face of the situation: that they needed to do whatever they could to get Nami medical assistance, that these islanders couldn’t know that they weren’t average thieving and plundering pirates, and she couldn’t act on her own in this kind of situation anyway.

An uncomfortable hush passed over the islanders as they turned to one another, sharing disbelieving and sceptical glances before turning to their green-clad leader for further directions.

The hard stare on the head of the group finally broke on the man’s face as his lips parted, “We’ll lead you to our town. Follow me.”

“See?” Vivi turned to Luffy who still had his face pressed to the floor, stuck there in his amazement at how well the situation had been recovered. “They understood us.”

“Yeah, you’re amazing!”

•❖❖❖❖•

“Good, all fixed up now!” Zoro grinned, clapping his feet together. “Right?” He turned to Karoo and Shinju who had been left to watch the ship with him.

Shinju glanced at the crude, amateur stitching on Zoro’s revealed calves. “Mm, it’s good that it didn’t get infected.” She nodded even though it didn’t look ‘all fixed up’ to her – but it was certainly healing quickly.

Zoro looked toward her own injury before moving back up to her face. “You gonna fix that up yet, or were you bluffing before?”

“I wasn’t bluffing.” Shinju moved to cross her arms over her chest, but instead, stupidly swung her right arm in the air when it met nothing. She immediately snapped her hand back to her side and shifted it to her hip. “I’m just going to have to go a little bit of a… roundabout way of doing it. That’s why I asked Sanji to pick some stuff up from the doctor if he can when bringing Nami to one.”

Zoro shrugged. “Whatever you say. Anyway, now I can start training for real.” He stood up and began unbuttoning his coat to Shinju and Karoo’s confusion. “I was getting tired of only lifting heavier and heavier weights, and since just sitting here to keep an eye on the ship is boring…” he threw off his coat and it landed on Karoo.

“W-What the?!” Shinju quickly pulled the coat off Karoo’s wide, orange bill and turned back to the crazy swordsman.

“I might as well do some mediating while swimming in the cold water.” Zoro clapped his hands together and moved to dive off the ship. A new snow shower began, and Shinju jolted out of her shock.

“Wait on a sec!” Shinju rushed over with his article of clothing, fully intending to get him back into it. “You’re gonna free…ze.”

With a splash, he slipped into the frigid waters, hands first and his bare feet disappearing after him.

“Quack.”

“Yeah… We just got ditched.”

Shinju shoved Zoro’s coat into her [Inventory] and sighed. Pacing across the deck, Karoo watched her for a few moments before beginning to waddle parallel with her. Constantly pausing and glancing back over the ocean, she wondered just when he planned to resurface or how far he had swum. She locked her fingers her hair before dragging her hand down the nape of her neck and back up again a few times.

Ducking back into the ship, she prepared some warm water in a thermos and grabbed a thick blanket, shoving both into her [Inventory]. Eventually, she spotted him on the black river bank a _lot_ further down. From this distance, she could just make out his figure turning left and right by the tinning and widening of his broad shoulders as he spun around.

‘He’s coming back to the ship, right?’ Shinju stared into the distance. ‘He’s not walking in the opposite direction shivering like he can actually feel the cold now, right?’

“…Quack.”

Dragging a hand down her face and holding it over her mouth to keep it from going slack, Shinju watched him disappear into the woods for a solid minute with narrowed eyes unclearly expressing something between disbelief, annoyance, and worry. She hastily slipped back inside the ship, the tap of her shoes against the wooden floors echoing in the empty vessel. Looking around and spinning in a circle, she slapped a hand to her forehead when she realised the men’s room entrance was the trapdoor by the mainmast. Adding a set of warm clothes to give to Zoro when she finally found him, she headed back up.

‘Seriously, he’s going to die of hypothermia,’ Shinju huffed.

Preparing to step off the ship after stashing away Zoro’s shoes and swords he left by the railing, Karoo saluted her with his wing in an exaggerated sweep of her feathers to send her off. Chuckling, she gave her own two-fingered salute before that happy little sound died in her throat at seeing the daunting distance she was going to have to make.

‘How the hell have I been getting on and off this thing without a gangplank?’ Thinking back Shinju quickly pulled up an answer, making her expression turn deadpan. ‘Ah, right, Luffy’s been yeeting me aboard… and usually, the ground is closer to water level…’

Crawling up onto Merry’s head with a silent apology, she jumped from the figurehead and managed scramble up the side of the elevated bank, snow and sticks falling into the ocean below with wet plops. “Phew.” Trudging through the snow with heavy crunches underfoot, she headed in the last direction she had seen Zoro disappear into.

Sighing in relief when found remnants of Zoro’s tracks in the snow, she was glad the current snowfall hadn’t hidden them yet. She fell into a rhythmic pace with accompanying shuddering breaths with her crackling footfalls.

 _Drrrrrrrr_.

Abruptly whipping her head up, Shinju focused strange background noise beginning to thickly fill the silence of the forest. Now that she was still as a deer caught in headlights, she could feel the growing trembling rising from her legs and up her spine. The loud rumbling in the distance didn’t come close to being as loud as the cacophony of alarm bells harshly ricocheting around in her head.

“Oh no…” Shinju uttered when she saw the distant wall of pure white cascading down the mountains.

Turning on her heel, she headed away from the centre of the island, abandoning Zoro’s tracks that she had found. While a profound feeling of shame and fear swelled in her chest, a quieter, more rational part of her brain reminded her just how much power Zoro could dish out and shrug off. Every other part was reminding her what _she_ couldn’t.

The rumbling behind her continued to grow, closing in on her position as she struggled through the snow. Each step seemed to get deeper and harder to push through, hugging her legs in a dangerously soft clasp.

“Fuck, fuck, _fuck!_ ” she swore as the avalanche approached, her curses swallowed by the roar of violently surging snow.

•❖❖❖❖•

“Nnghhhh! Come on, Usopp! Hang in there!” Vivi grunted with effort as she dragged the sniper onwards towards Big Horn village – they couldn’t let Wapol do as he pleased with the very people he had abandoned and tormented.

“Mnn, don’t wake me up now, Vivi. I’m in the middle of a good dream. I can see a flowerbed and river so beautiful they look like they belong in heaven,” Usopp muttered.

“That’s because that probably is heaven!” Brutally slapping him across the face in an effort to keep him conscious. Once Usopp had regained his faculties, Vivi nervously passed it off as the cold swelling his face, and they eventually came across a lump of snow that suddenly began to shift.

“Whoa!” Usopp fell back on his behind in shock, and Vivi followed him down with a squeak of surprise.

Neither was expecting it to randomly rise upwards… and for the snow falling off the hidden object to reveal a half-naked Zoro… who was meant to be watching the ship… and ya’know, _wearing his damn clothes_. Once Zoro finally realised that he had company, he began telling them what he had been up to and how he had been swept up by the avalanche.

“Ice-water swimming?!” Usopp shouted as they began to walk together.

“Yeah, and I surprisingly saw some fish swimming in the freezing river, so I thought it’d be cool to chase after them,” he casually added, as if his actions were normal. “But afterwards, I got lost so I started walking in one direction and before I knew it, I was lost in this forest.”

“How stupid can you get?!”

“Whatever, just lend me your coat, Usopp.”

“Oh, _hell_ no!”

‘I wonder if Nami’s illness had anything to do with all the mental stress and exhaustion from dealing with her crewmates,’ Vivi considered.

“Then at least your boots!” Zoro’s fingers clenched tightly into the skin of his folded arms, fighting back more violent shivers. “Even a single one’ll do!”

“Tough luck, buddy.”

•❖❖❖❖•

‘Damn, looks like this town got hit too.’ Shinju stepped into the half-buried village. Not seeing anyone on the edge but still hearing human activity, she started to head further in. ‘Where the hell is everyone else? Hmm… I feel like I’ve thought that exact sentence before.’

**[Health: 83%]**

Luckily, only the edge of the avalanche had hit her, and it hadn’t done much more than slamming her up against a tree and bury her up to her chest – which was easy enough get out of… by furiously thrashing and squirming like a demented worm. And since worms weren’t vertebrae, she didn’t have to worry about how her spine may have snapped on impact.

Once she came to the sound of the commotion, she found the villagers standing together as a crowd that had energy more akin to that of an angry mob. Shinju turned her attention to the target of their hostility and found the same green uniforms of the vessel that had attacked them and damaged the Merry.

“Get out of the way, you bastards!” one of the villagers yelled, his rifle clasped tightly in his hands.

A young boy with a flushed face and shaking fists stepped forward. “Let us help Dalton, you stinking bullies!”

An annoyingly familiar feeling of queasy apprehension began to settle in Shinju’s chest as she kept low and snuck behind the houses, keeping out of sight of the soldiers who were acting little more than common bandits.

“Piss off, brat!” The soldier with an ugly scar over his chin that seemed to be leading the group struck his leg out and mercilessly kicked the kid to the ground.

“Leave him alone!”

More cries of outrage came from the civilian group, and a woman was immediately upon the child – most likely the mother – and was harshly scolding him. She was pulling at the stubborn child’s arm to drag him away from the scene.

Then Shinju caught sight of the rock grasped tightly in his little gloved hand.

Shinju pulled out her gun. ‘You stupid little-’

“[Fake Noise]!” she whispered and flung her will at the soldier in the front.

•❖❖❖❖•

_BANG!_

“Fuck!” The sudden curse of the scarred man as he clutched his right ear had the other soldiers turn their guns on the villagers. And the little boy dropped his rock in his surprise. “Who the fuck shot me?!” he growled out through gritted teeth, his hand dragging down the side of his face and back to his rifle.

“Behind you _, **Reid** ,” _he heard his name unsettlingly whispered into his ear, vaguely recognising it as female as he wheeled around with his raised gun.

“Hey! Watch where you’re pointing that thing!” The man directly behind him scowled, shuffling back with small steps.

“Who said that?” Reid snapped; his eyes wide as he clenched his jaw. He was going to be pissed if one of his men was dicking around.

“Paul?” The mentioned man jerked aggressively with a sharp intake, his finger immediately on the trigger. “Is that you? Paul!”

Soon the soldiers were a mess of confused and anxious mutterings, some looking much more fearful than others. Many only had their names whispered in a scathing tone full of malice; some only heard the passing whispers for others that flittered through the group, brushing by their ears; but a handful were asked disturbing questions.

“Reid… **_where’s my leg?_** ”

Even the villagers themselves had been muffled down to quiet murmurings as they backed away.

Not being able to take it, a couple tried to run, only to end up falling over themselves. Their sudden loss of balance as they tried to scramble away only panicking them further which spread like an infectious disease to the others’ composures.

“I-It’s a g-ghost!”

“Screw this!”

Something clicked within Pauls mind and he tried to take over the situation, seeing that Reid looked ready to flee at any moment. “Calm down! This must be some kind of Devil Fruit trick!” He turned to the villagers with his rifle raised. “I bet one of you-!”

The whispers and tripping ceased, and a thud in the snow had the already jumpy soldiers shooting at the ground where they heard it from, quickly processing that the items were much too small, low, and lacking in green to be one of them. Three shots rang out in rapid succession, splattering the already reddened snow with more wide sprays of blood.

A pail, bare leg laid in the snow with crimson steadily leaking from the holes torn into it and the butchered off the top.

“F-Fuck, it’s a human leg!” the soldier closest to it stammered. His breath was shortening, and he could feel a bead of cold sweat running down the back of his neck like a finger trailing down the back of his neck. “I’m out of here!”

Another ran after the first, “You peasants can have Dalton’s frozen corpse; I’m not dying today!” and the group was easily halved as they frantically fled the scene, a mad, fear fuelled panic driving them.

Reid stood there with his heart up in his throat being crushed by his tightening airways. “R-RETREAT!!!” he screamed, and at his pathetic excuse for an order, they fled.

•❖❖❖❖•

‘That actually worked? Ugh, I feel so gross and edgy.’ Shinju watched the last of them disappear with a dropped jaw. ‘Okay, the leg was a bit much and I probably would have run too if some creepy voice was muttering my name. Good thing they weren't Baroque Works members with secret identities or using [Inspection] on them might have been a problem.’

Just thinking about having to pull out the leg from her [Inventory] and watching the blood splatter all over the snow tickled her gag reflex.

“Hey, you’re that armless girl that was with those pirates, right?” One man stepped over to her while the others converged on the pile of snow to save Dalton. She jumped at his sudden approach but quickly calmed. “Were you… were you the one to scare them off?” he asked with a nervous look, his eyes flickering to and from her face, not maintaining eye contact for more than a second at a time.

Shinju analysed him curiously. ‘Why’s he acting so – oh wait, the _leeeg,_ right.’

“I’m usually not armless, but yeah, that’s me,” Shinju gave a tired smile. She was hoping that he'd go away quick, not wanting to waste any more energy entertaining random people. “…And yes. I scared them off. With a spare leg. Don’t worry, it was mine.”

“I wanted to apologise and thank you for – wait, what the hell do you mean you’re not usually armless. Wait – that leg was yours?!”

“As in I’ve usually got more arm and less, less arm of my arms… and no, that leg was not mine.”

“…”

“Well, it was, but now it’s theirs I guess.”

“…”

“It’s been a long week.”

“…”

“…”

“Are you… by any chance… Mochizuki Shinju?” he finally spoke up.

“How do you know that?!” Shinju turned to face him fully and noticed that the reason he had constantly been glancing away from her was that he was looking down at a _newspaper_ in his hands. Now she was looking from his awkward-looking, beady-eyed face back down to the back of the newspaper and back up again.

“Are you in… danger?” he hesitantly asked, his hands making a crinkling noise as he fiddled and picked at the paper.

“Danger? Yeah,” Shinju nodded tensely. “I’m always in danger. Kinda sucks.”

His expression quickly flitted from worry to a more deadpan expression, his lips pursing together. “After seeing your captain and that blue-haired girl beggin’ for a doctor, we didn’t think it was true, but – you should just see for yourself.” He scratched at the stubble of his chin and handed over the flimsy layers of paper.

Shinju’s eyes rapidly skimmed over the headlines. Her hand clenched the newspaper hard enough to have the entire surface twisting from the warped edge. “What?! I can’t believe-” the volume and shock of her voice dropped down to a monotone that matched the deadpan face of the man standing next to her. “ah… never mind, this makes sense.”

"..."

"..."

"You haven't happened to see a green-haired, half-naked man run by, have you?"

•❖❖❖❖•

**User No. 44 | The Cobalt Mage  
Name: Mochizuki Shinju  
Skills:  
[Autotomy]  
[Fake Noise]  
[Inspection]  
[Inventory]  
[Rain Shield]  
[Stone Skipping]  
[Trip]  
Passives:  
[Biological Difference]  
[Game-Game Fruit]  
[Non-Locational Damage]  
[Unnatural Existence]**

•❖❖❖❖•

I have updated ___〆(・▿・)

I hope u guys liked it. *:･ﾟ✧

Ye.

Feel free to comment just for fun, ask questions, *cough* _maybe give me some constructive criticism_ *hack* and don’t forget to favourite if you’re enjoying the story!

Have a nice day °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

(p.s. this probs has a lot of mistakes so I’ll come back to edit it more… tomorrow… yeah… dat’s the plan bois.)


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